Fabio Fusco

In the Piedmont Basin (PB), one of the northernmost Mediterranean basins recording the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), pollen and plant macroremains (leaves, fruits and seeds) were studied in four sedimentary sections of the post-evaporitic interval (5.6–5.33 Ma). The joint palaeobotanical investigations of the two datasets allowed the reconstruction of a floristic assemblage which consists of 133 taxa (95 woody and 38 non-woody taxa). The lowland/coastal vegetation reconstructed by integrating macro- and microfossil data exhibits several analogies with existing “types/formations” of South-Southeast Asia, whereas taxa occurring solely in the pollen record suggest the existence of altitudinal forests with conifers and a few angiosperms. We suggest that the generalized type of lowland, zonal palaeovegetation in the post-evaporitic Messinian of the PB was of no-analog type, but most similar to either “mixed mesophytic forests” or “broad-leaved evergreen forests”, which indicates a Köp...

Dottorato di ricerca in paleontologia. 8. ciclo. A.a. 1992-95. Tutore M. L. Colalongo. Cotutore R. Bertoldi. Coordinatore E. SerpagliConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale - P.za Cavalleggeri, 1, Florence / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

To comprehend how Prehistoric societies adapted to past environmental changes, local responses of ecosystems to global climatic oscillations must be examined at high resolution. A finer chrono-climatic resolution is also essential to grasp the diffusion of populations in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene. Reinvestigated since 2012, the 45-m thick sequence of Valle Giumentina (Central Italy), including 13 Lower Paleolithic archaeological levels, was assigned to the time span from MIS 15 to MIS 12. Among the MIS 13 deposits, a new 1-m thick sequence (LAC) made of colluvial and aeolian deposits was revealed above the ABF paleosol (dated to 509 ± 8 ka) at 6 m deep. Micromorphological, geochronological and pollen analyses were carried out. 40Ar/39Ar on single-grain dating suggests an age of 505 ± 3.6 ka for these deposits. LAC deposits recorded Glacial conditions at first very dry then wetter, during the short interstadial phase of MIS 13b. The three archaeological levels (ABF-33, Kor and IlG) discovered here yielded heterogeneous lithic industries. IlG corresponds to the oldest occurrence of bifacial production evidenced so far in the sequence. These data help to clarify the chronological and environmental framework of human occupations and climatic events on a Euro-Mediterranean scale during the first part of the Middle Pleistocene.

Una serie di controlli stratigrafici operati nel 2005 su invito della Soprintendenza Archeologica dell\u2019Emilia-Romagna in cantieri della citt\ue0 di Bologna ha condotto all\u2019individuazione di suoli sepolti a varia profondit\ue0. La presenza di materiali archeologici nelle sequenze stratigrafiche ha permesso considerazioni sulla relazione tra tempo e tipo pedologico sviluppato e tra tipo di suolo e geomorfologia. In particolare, in due siti ubicati in aree marginali al piccolo conoide su cui sorge la citt\ue0 sono stati studiati un suolo vertico dell\u2019Olocene antico ed un probabile inceptisuolo evolutosi fino ad et\ue0 romana inoltrata su una coltre sedimentaria della prima et\ue0 del Ferro. La radiodatazione della materia organica contenuta nei suoli ha fornito per il primo l\u2019et\ue0 calibrata (1 sigma) di 9.300-8.650 anni BP e per il secondo 3.150-2.840 BP. Il suolo vertico non \ue8 coevo al deterioramento climatico dell\u2019Optimum Climatico olocenico del 8.200 BP, anticipandolo di circa 800 anni. Il confronto con altri vertisuoli sepolti regionali sottolinea per tale ordine di suoli l\u2019importanza del contrasto stagionale nuovamente ricomparso dopo il termine dell\u2019ultimo periodo glaciale. Il forte movimento del CaCO3 , testimoniato dalla presenza di un orizzonte Bkb ben sviluppato \ue8 legato all\u2019infiltrazione meteorica e al chimismo del materiale genitore liberato dal bacino montano marnoso del torrente Aposa. La distribuzione fisiografica dei suoli vertici sotto la citt\ue0 di Bologna si mostra probabilmente in relazione con il margine del conoide inteso come limite dinamico tra ambiti deposizionali di corsi d\u2019acqua adiacenti. In queste aree, locali contropendenze devono aver indotto condizioni di ristagno idrico superficiale stagionale in grado di mantenersi attraverso il tempo e/o riproporsi pi\uf9 volte. Il significato di tali suoli \ue8 quindi principalmente stazionale e non strettamente paleoclimatico. Il suolo \u201cromano\u201d (punto 2) evolve per circa 1.000-1.200 anni; mentre non si \ue8 ancora in grado di definire il reale arco cronologico d\u2019evoluzione del vertisuolo pi\uf9 antic

Abstract An integrated geological study, including sedimentology, stable isotope analysis (δ18O, δ13C), geochemistry, micromorphology, biomarker analysis, 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and tephrochronology, was undertaken on the Quaternary infill of the Valle Giumentina basin in Central Italy, which also includes an outstanding archaeological succession, composed of nine human occupation levels ascribed to the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic. 40Ar/39Ar dating, and other palaeoenvironmental and tephrochronological data, constrain the sedimentary history of the whole succession to the MIS 15-MIS 12 interval, between 618 ± 13 ka and 456 ± 2 ka. Palaeoenvironmental proxies suggest that over this time interval of about 150 ka, sedimentary and pedogenic processes were mainly influenced by climatic changes, in particular by the pulsing of local mountain glaciers of the Majella massif. Specifically, the Valle Giumentina succession records glacio-fluvial and lacustrine sedimentation during the colder glacial periods and pedogenesis and/or alluvial sedimentation during the warmer interglacial and/or interstadial periods. During this interval, tectonics played a negligible role as a driving factor of local morphogenesis and sedimentation, whereas the general regional uplift experienced in the Middle Pleistocene led to capture of the basin and its definitive extinction after MIS 12. These data substantially improve previous knowledge of the chronology and sedimentary evolution of the succession, providing for the first time, a well constrained chronological and palaeoenvironmental framework for the archaeological and human palaeoecological record of Valle Giumentina.

The Ombrone palaeovalley was incised during the last glacial sea‐level fall and was infilled during the subsequent Late‐glacial to Holocene transgression. A detailed sedimentological and stratigraphic study of two cores along the palaeovalley axis led to reconstruction of the post‐Last Glacial Maximum valley‐fill history. Stratigraphic correlations show remarkable similarity in the Late‐glacial to early‐Holocene succession, but discrepancy in the Holocene portion of the valley fill. Above the palaeovalley floor, about 60 m below sea‐level, Late‐glacial sedimentation is recorded by an unusually thick alluvial succession dated back to ca 18 cal kyr bp. The Holocene onset was followed by the retrogradational shift from alluvial to coastal facies. In seaward core OM1, the transition from inner to outer estuarine environments marks the maximum deepening of the system. By comparison, in landward core OM2, the emplacement of estuarine conditions was interrupted by renewed continental sedim...

Integrated sedimentologic and pollen studies of a 300-m long core in the subsurface of Bologna show a common history of fluvial sedimentation and climatic evolution at southern margin of the Po Plain during the Late Quaternary. Detailed facies analyses of the core and stratigraphic correlations with adjacent wells document a distinctive cyclic pattern of facies, which allows subdivision of the Quaternary succession into a series of unconformity-bounded units, 40-60 m thick, spanning intervals of time of about 100 ky. Each unit consists of a characteristic upward-coarsening succession, includin basal, mud-prone floodplain deposits, with upward transition to increasingly amalgamated fluvial-channel gravels and sands. Lower cycle boundaries, generally corresponding to the top of sheet-like fluvial complexes, are locally associated to the presence of organic-rich, paludal clays. Pollen distribution shows distinctive cyclic changes, which parallel facies architecture. Floodplain bodies i...

... With reference to the Pleistocene deposits outcropping in the Lamone valley, previous ... They recognised a series of foraminiferal bioevents of relevant chronostratigraphic interest and referred ... microphotographs, and iconographic tables from a number of publications (eg, [Lona ...

... see [Vai, 1989] and [Vai and Martini, 2001], and references therein). ... and Venezia (1999) recognized a series of foraminiferal bioevents of relevant chronostratigraphic interest ... At present, a number of papers focusing on biostratigraphic, magnetostratigraphic, sedimentary and ...

Integrated sedimentological and micropaleontological (foraminifera, ostracods, pollens) investigations of a 173-m-long continuous core in the subsurface of the SE Po Plain reveal a cyclic facies distribution of continental to shallow-marine deposits. Radiometric and pollen data enable an age attribution of the study units to the late Middle Pleistocene–Holocene. Glacioeustasy appears to have exerted a major control on facies development, as documented by the close relationships between cyclic lithofacies patterns and the curves of eustatic fluctuation. Particularly, relative sea-level falls and lowstand phases were characterized by the development of alluvial sedimentation, whereas major transgressive pulses and subsequent highstands are reflected by abrupt shifts to paralic and shallow-marine deposits. This facies architecture is paralleled by a distinctive pollen distribution, reflecting the alternation of a glacial type of vegetation, dominated by Pinus and nonarboreal pollen typ...