The Middle-Late Pleistocene mammal fauna from Montignoso (Leghorn, central Italy)

Abstract

: A historical collection of fossil mammals from Montignoso (Leghorn, central Italy) is revisited here. The faunal community is fairly diversified; it includes Elephas (Pa-laeoloxodon) antiquus, Equus ferus, Stephanorhinus hemitoechus, Sus scrofa, Hippopotamus sp., Census elaphus, Dama dama, Capreolus capreolus, Bos primigenius, Bison sp., Canis lupus, Vulpes vulpes, Lynx sp., Felis silvestris, Panthera pardus, Crocuta crocuta, Ursus arctos, Marmota marmota, Hystrix sp., Arvicola cantiana-terresths, Aquila sp. and Aves indet. Taphonomic analyses lead to the conclusion that the Montignoso assemblage consists in a time-averaged attritional accumulation of mammal remains reworked from a nearby land surface. From the stratigraphic viewpoint, the porcupine is a small-sized representative which is perhaps referable to Hystrix Vinogradovi, a species characteristic of the last interglacial. An attribution of this fauna to the Eemian is apparently consistent with the presence of a water vole transitional between A. cantiana and A. terrestris.