Tenuta Zuccarello Filling II (Holocene of Italy)

Also known as Roman Well US 100

Where: Veneto, Italy (45.5° N, 12.3° E: paleocoordinates 45.5° N, 12.3° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Holocene (0.0 - 0.0 Ma)

Environment/lithology: lacustrine - small; silty sandstone

• If compared with the amphibians and reptiles currently living near the Venetian Lagoon (see Sindaco et al. 2006; Bonato et al. 2007; and Sillero et al. 2014), the assemblage of the Tenuta Zuccarello well clearly lacks various taxa, notably anurans of the Bufotes viridis complex and the genus Pelophylax as well as wall lizards of the genus Podarcis. It is not easy to explain the absence of common taxa such as these ones in terms of environmental features of the area in the past, taking also into account the wide range of habitats that they inhabits today. Moreover, it has to be noted that at least some of these taxa has been found in nearby sites of similar age (e.g. green frogs in Lova di Campagna Lupia and Oderzo; Delfino et al. 2008). Their absence from Tenuta Zuccarello is therefore puzzling. Of course, as far as small lacertid lizards like Podarcis are concerned, they might be represented, though unrecognised, among the small lacertid remains identified only at family level. On the other hand, almost all of the taxa found in the Roman well are still represented near the Lagoon. The only exception is Bombina, which currently lives in most of the Veneto region (Bombina variegata; Bonato et al. 2007; Sillero et al. 2014), but not near the Lagoon. The other two fossil occurrences of the genus in Veneto, both Early Pleistocene in age, are located in the Verona province (Delfino et al. 2008; Villa et al. 2018), that is within the current range of B. variegata. Tenuta Zuccarello represents therefore the first occurrence of Bombina outside its current range.
• The well has an average diameter of 80 cm and was filled by clayey-silty and clayey-sandy sediments. Two different filling sequences were recognised, but they are considered approximately coeval. A rather large number of faunal remains were found in the well, representing both invertebrates (molluscs) and vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, and small mammals).

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: anthropogenic

Collected by Soprintendenza Archeologica per il Veneto - Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Altino in 2000

Collection methods: surface (in situ), ,

• Natural History Museum of Venezia (MSNVE)

Primary reference: A. Villa, M. Bon, and M. Delfino. 2018. Trapped in a roman well: amphibians and reptiles from Tenuta Zuccarello near Marcon, Venice, Italy. Historical Biology 1-16 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 193570: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 30.05.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Reptilia
 Squamata - Anguidae
Anguis fragilis Linneaus 1758 Slow worm
1 maxilla (MSNVE-23379/4); 2 dentaries (MSNVE-23379/5–6); 1 cloacal vertebra (MSNVE- 23379/3); 44 caudal vertebrae (MSNVE-23379/1–2)
 Squamata - Lacertidae
Lacerta viridis Laurenti 1768 European green lizard
2 caudal vertebrae (MSNVE-23378/1–2)
 Squamata - Colubridae
Hierophis viridiflavus colubrid snake
1 compound bone (MSNVE-23380)
Amphibia
 Salientia -
Anura indet. Fischer von Waldheim 1813 frog
1 humerus (MSNVE-23377/2); 9 radioulnae (MSNVE-23377/3–4); 1 tibiofibula (MSNVE-23377/1); 34 indeterminate elements (MSNVE-23377/5)
 Salientia - Bombinatoridae
Bombina sp. Oken 1816 fire-bellied toad
3 trunk vertebrae (MSNVE-23374/1); 1 urostyle (MSNVE-23374/2); 4 humeri (MSNVE-23374/5–6); 1 ilium (MSNVE-23374/3); 1 femur (MSNVE-23374/4)
 Salientia - Bufonidae
Bufo bufo Linnaeus 1758 toad
4 trunk vertebrae (MSNVE-23375/3); 2 humeri (MSNVE-23375/4–5); 4 tibiofibulae (MSNVE-23375/1–2)
 Salientia - Ranidae
Rana dalmatina Bonaparte 1839 frog
8 maxillae (MSNVE-23376/3–4); 1 sphenetmoid (MSNVE-23376/9); 3 angulars (MSNVE-23376/ 6–7); 13 trunk vertebrae (MSNVE-23376/17–18); 3 sacral vertebrae (MSNVE-23376/5); 3 urostyles (MSNVE-23376/14); 4 coracoids (MSNVE-23376/15– 16); 1 scapula (MSNVE-23376/8); 6 humeri (MSNVE- 23376/19–21); 6 ilia (MSNVE-23376/1–2, 22); 12 femurs (MSNVE-23376/12–13); 11 tibiofibulae (MSNVE- 23376/10–11)