Pollen from Late Pleistocene hyena (Crocuta crocuta spelaea) coprolites: an interdisciplinary approach from two Italian sites

TY - JOUR

T1 - Pollen from Late Pleistocene hyena (Crocuta crocuta spelaea) coprolites

T2 - an interdisciplinary approach from two Italian sites

AU - Gatta, Maurizio

AU - Sinopoli, Gaia

AU - Giardini, Marco

AU - Giaccio, Biagio

AU - Hadjas, Irka

AU - Pandolfi, Luca

AU - Bailey, Geoff

AU - Spikins, Penny

AU - Rolfo, Mario

AU - Sadori, Laura

N1 - © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2016/10

Y1 - 2016/10

N2 - Palynology of fossil faeces is still extremely rare and its contribution to the interpretation of the environment undervalued. In this paper we present the results of pollen analysis performed on cave hyena coprolites [Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1832)] from Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) sites of Cava Muracci (Cisterna di Latina, central Italy) and Tana delle Iene (Ceglie Messapica, southern Italy). This study provides new insights into the vegetation of the Late Pleistocene of peninsular Italy, until now known only through long pollen records. It also shows how the content of coprolites, combined with faunal data and geochronological investigations, can represent a potential integrative source of palaeoclimatic proxy data. Our results indicate that the surroundings of both of the hyena dens were characterised by a patchy landscape with open lowlands dominated by steppe and grassland vegetation, while a few mesophilous and thermophilous trees were present in more humid areas, probably along the marine coast and inland. The harsh glacial climate appears to have been milder at Cava Muracci than at Tana delle Iene. This could be due either to the different environmental features of the two sites or to the high climatic variability that occurred during MIS3.

AB - Palynology of fossil faeces is still extremely rare and its contribution to the interpretation of the environment undervalued. In this paper we present the results of pollen analysis performed on cave hyena coprolites [Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss, 1832)] from Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) sites of Cava Muracci (Cisterna di Latina, central Italy) and Tana delle Iene (Ceglie Messapica, southern Italy). This study provides new insights into the vegetation of the Late Pleistocene of peninsular Italy, until now known only through long pollen records. It also shows how the content of coprolites, combined with faunal data and geochronological investigations, can represent a potential integrative source of palaeoclimatic proxy data. Our results indicate that the surroundings of both of the hyena dens were characterised by a patchy landscape with open lowlands dominated by steppe and grassland vegetation, while a few mesophilous and thermophilous trees were present in more humid areas, probably along the marine coast and inland. The harsh glacial climate appears to have been milder at Cava Muracci than at Tana delle Iene. This could be due either to the different environmental features of the two sites or to the high climatic variability that occurred during MIS3.

KW - Central Mediterranean

KW - Hyena coprolites

KW - Environmental changes

KW - Marine Isotope Stage 3

KW - Palaeoecology

KW - Palynology

U2 - 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2016.07.005

DO - 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2016.07.005

M3 - Article

VL - 233

SP - 56

EP - 66

JO - Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

JF - Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

SN - 0034-6667

ER -