The deposit of the Late Pleistocene from Avetrana (Taranto, southern Italy): biochronology and palaeoecology. Il

The analytical study of the vertebrate assemblage from the Late Pleistocene, found in a karstic cavity (which lays on a calcarenite near Avetrana, Taranto, southern Italy), allows us to reduce the chronological span during which the fossil remains were deposited. In particular, some circumstances allowed the authors to collocate the fauna in a temporal span from 100.000 to 80.000 years (Faunal Unit of Melpignano - PETRONIO et al., 2007). The findings show the occurence of Hystrix vinogradovi (never found in Italy during the central part of the Late Pleistocene), the even more rare presence of Hippopotamus amphibius in the same period, the discovery of Cervus elaphus elaphus, the archaic morphology of Dama dama dama, the dimension of Bos primigenius. Finally the finding of an archaic Mousterian tool is also recorded. The analysis of the avifauna and of the mammal fauna allowed us to retrace the habitat of that period.