Papers by Antonella Cinzia Marra
One mandible and an associated lower tusk fragment of Stegotetrabelodon syrticus, a primitive ele... more One mandible and an associated lower tusk fragment of Stegotetrabelodon syrticus, a primitive elephantid firstly recorded at As Sahabi, Northern Libya (Petrocchi 1954), were recovered at the end of the 1990s, from late Miocene deposits exposed near Cessaniti (Ferretti et al., 2003). In recent years, further remains attributable to S. syrticus have been retrieved in the same stratigraphical unit (Unit 2, Gramigna et al., 2008): at Cessaniti a molar fragment, an incomplete humerus, a partial femur and a metapodial; at Zungri a partial humerus. Unit 2 is made up by gray sandstones containing a fully marine fauna, with extremely abundant echinoids, relatively abudant sirenians (Metaxytherium serresii, Carone and Domning, 2007) and less common continental mammals: Bohlinia attica, Samotherium boissieri, a boselafine bovid, an hexaprotodontid hippopotamus and a rhino (Gramigna, 2008, Marra et al., 2011). Unit 2 represents the onset of marine conditions in a succession representing a transgressive (Tortonian) – regressive (Messinian) cycle (Gramigna, 2008, Marra et al., 2011).
This study revises the mammal-bearing stratigraphic succession of Cava Gentile, near Cessaniti (C... more This study revises the mammal-bearing stratigraphic succession of Cava Gentile, near Cessaniti (Calabria, southern Italy), with the aim of dating the Late Miocene fossiliferous succession by the integration of mammal biochronology with sedimentology, magnetostratigraphy and marine biostratigraphy. Since the first discovery of mammal remains at Cessaniti, the chronological framework of the sedimentary succession was based on the biochronological significance of the mammal assemblage and on the biostratigraphic characterisation of the capping unit. Chronological control of the sedimentary succession and the age range of the mammal faunal assemblage at Cessaniti is now possible by combining the mammal biochronological constraints with biostratigraphy and the characterisation of the magnetostratigraphy of the sedimentary succession. Our study allows the conclusion that: i) an overall transgressive trend is recorded at the late Tortonian succession of the Capo Vaticano area, with locally different depositional trends; ii) the late Tortonian transgression was punctuated by minor episodes of forced regression, as attested by soils and fluvial deposits intercalated within the Cava Gentile succession (documented here for the first time); iii) the relative sea level rises that characterised these sedimentation patterns allowed accumulation of marine and terrestrial fossils in specific transgressive horizons; iv) the combination of palaeomagnetic data and biostratigraphic analyses, together with the biochronological constraints offered by the Cessaniti mammal assemblage, allows the assignment of the basal unit of the Cessaniti (Cava Gentile) succession to the normal Chron C4n (8.1–7.5 Ma); and v) the maximum range of the Cessaniti land mammal assemblage from Cava Gentile is about 1 Ma, bracketed between 8.1 and 7.2 Ma.
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2000
Abstract: In Sicily few studies have been devoted to the climatic-environmental changes of the Pl... more Abstract: In Sicily few studies have been devoted to the climatic-environmental changes of the Pleistocene and Holocene period. Most of the studies on Quaternary vertebrates in Sicily have been focused on the evolutionary-taxonomic aspects of the fauna. Sicily experienced at ...
Conference Presentations by Antonella Cinzia Marra
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Papers by Antonella Cinzia Marra
Conference Presentations by Antonella Cinzia Marra