The development of the Arctic ice cap at the beginning of the Pleistocene had significant impacts on global climate. In Europe this climate oscillations determined important changes in environmental conditions which resulted in modification of vegetation and faunal composition especially in the Italian peninsula, where Apennine uplift and sea level change, further exacerbated these cyclic processes. During the Early Pleistocene mammal taxa adapted to warmer and humid tropical-like environments were slowly replaced through different dispersion episodes, by animals that found in the now colder and more arid habitats the optimal conditions to thrive. As of current archeological records the first hominin populations arrived in Europe during one of these events. The earliest records of the presence of hominins in the European continent can be found in the Italian Peninsula at the Early Pleistocene archeo-paleontological site of Pirro Nord (Apricena, Southern Italy). The site has been dated between 1.7 and 1.3 Ma and the lithic artifacts which testify the presence of human populations in the area are associated to a significant vertebrate assemblage (Pirro Nord Faunal Unit). The remarkable number of mammal fossil taxa allow for an in-depth study of the region paleoenvironmental and paleoecological conditions. As mammals display a wide range of diets, which reflect both their evolutionary history and ecology, their tooth morphology, structure and wear degree represent good proxies to infer dietary adaptations and environmental conditions. By investigating dental morphologies and wear patterns of Pirro Nord fossil mammals, new data can be acquired on the habitat occupied by the very first hominins upon their arrival in the European continent during the Early Pleistocene.
Italy has played and plays a role of great importance in the study of prehistory and Pleistocene palaeontology, both for the presence of internationally renowned scholars as early as the end of the nineteenth century, for the quality of its geological deposits and fossil records, as well as for its geographical position in the heart of the Mediterranean. The Italian sites have enabled the international community to define chronological schemes such as the Pirro Nord Faunal Unit, palaeobiogeographical models and to develop new methods of investigation. The Italian peninsula is thus a region of great importance for the study of the environmental changes that occurred during the beginning of the Pleistocene, when the climatic oscillations in the Northern Hemisphere have profoundly influenced the terrestrial ecosystems and its components. While paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the peninsula region based on paleovegetation composition and palinology are fairly common (Combourieu-Nebout et al., 2015; Magri et al., 2017), accurate and in-dept studies of the paleoecological conditions of the Italian peninsula during this geocronological phase marked by important bioevents (arrival of the genus Homo in the European continent) based on mammals feeding behaviours and dietary adaptations are pivotal but still scarce. This project would represent the first application of dental wear, morphology and isotopic analyses on the rich vertebrate mammal fossils of the site of Pirro Nord, thus allowing to increase the available data on Early Pleistocene habitat conditions on the onset of the first recorded human dispersion event into Europe.
Cited references:
-Combourieu-Nebout, N., Bertini, A., Russo-Ermolli, E., Peyron, O., Klotz, S., Montade, V., Fauquette, S., Allen, J., Fusco, F., Goring, S., Huntley, B., Joannin, S., Lebreton, V., Magri, D., Martinetto, E., Orain, R., Sadori, L., 2015. Climate changes in the central Mediterranean and Italian vegetation dynamics since the Pliocene. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 218, 127-147.
-Magri, D., Di Rita, F., Aranbarri, J., Fletcher, W., González-Sampériz, P., 2017. Quaternary disappearance of tree taxa from Southern Europe: Timing and trends. Quaternary Science Reviews 163, 23-55.