Selvella, Gioiella, Southern Chiana Valley, Perugia (Pleistocene of Italy)

Where: Perugia, Italy (43.1° N, 12.0° E: paleocoordinates 43.0° N, 11.9° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

When: Early/Lower Pleistocene (2.6 - 0.8 Ma)

• Late Early Pleistocene, approximately 1Ma.

Environment/lithology: fluvial-lacustrine

• A 3m section was exposed, but the sequence is deeper than this. In the unexposed sections the sandy layer forms an escarpment that can be followed for some hundred meters in the valley, suggesting a gentle north-east dip. Landscape morphology suggests a richer clay content in the underlying sediments.
• The bones are found in a thin lense, just below the top of a layer of yellow crossbedded coarse grained sands.

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: Site found in a sand quarry temporarily opened in 1969 (IGF locality n. 87). Material collected and stored at the Geological & Palaeontological Museum of the University of Florence.

Primary reference: C. De Guili. 1987. Late Villafranchian faunas of Italy: the Selvella Local Fauna in the southern Chiana Valley, Umbria. Palaeontographia Italica 74:11-50 [A. Turner/H. O'Regan/H. O'Regan]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 44145: authorized by Alan Turner, entered by Hannah O'Regan on 02.09.2004

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Equus and Dama are most abundant, most other species represented by few elements. Leptobos is very large, similar in size to the largest Olivola specimens, whilst Eucladoceros is larger still and not so slender.
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Mammalia
 Carnivora - Felidae
Lynx issiodorensis
Lynx issiodorensis Croizet and Jobert 1828 lynx
1 badly crushed mandible (left and right sides), only the left P4 is undamaged.
 Carnivora - Canidae
Canis etruscus
Canis etruscus Forsyth Major 1877 canine
1 articulated cranium and lower jaw, lacking the cranium behind the orbits.
 Artiodactyla - Suidae
Sus sp.
Sus sp. Linnaeus 1758 pig
1 humerus diaphysis.
 Artiodactyla - Cervidae
"Pseudodama ? farnetensis" = Metacervocerus, "? Megaceroides ? obscurus" = Megaloceros (Megaceroides)
"Pseudodama ? farnetensis" = Metacervocerus deer
5 humerii, 7 distal radii, 12 proximal metacarpals, 1 femur, 10 astragali, 17 proximal metatarsals, 5 maxillae with teeth, 3 mandibles with teeth, 5 sections of vertebral column, 1 with pelvis, 4 antlers.
"? Megaceroides ? obscurus" = Megaloceros (Megaceroides) Irish elk
2 complete legs - 2 humerii, 2 radii, 2 metacarpals, 2 tibiae, 2 metatarsals, 1 calcaneum, 1 astragalus, 1 cubonavicularis, 1 phalange.
 Artiodactyla - Bovidae
Leptobos sp.
Leptobos sp. Rutimeyer 1878 antelope
1 tibia and fibula, 1 calcaneum, 1 astragalus, 1 metatarsal, 1 radius with broken ulna and articulating distal humerus.
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
"Equus cf. stenonis" = Allohippus stenonis
"Equus cf. stenonis" = Allohippus stenonis Cocchi 1867 horse
minimum 22 metapodia, 13 teeth, mandibles and maxillae, 1 radius, 1 proximal femur, 1 distal tibia, 6 phalanges.
 Proboscidea - Elephantidae
Elephantidae indet.
Elephantidae indet. Gray 1821 elephant
1 left capitatum, 1 fragmentary femur, 1 ilium. In discussion teh capitatum is thought to be most similar to Archidiskodon.