New remains of elephant and revision of late Pleistocene mammalian remains from Northeastern Sicily

Abstract

This paper deals with the description of skeletal elements of Elephas mnaidriensis recently found in northeast Sicily (Pace del Mela) and with revision of skeletal elements of mammals (Elephas mnaidriensis. Cervus elaphus siciliae, Canis lupus) from the nearby Villafranca Tirrena deposit. All the remains come from the sedimentary cover of the Tyrrhenian terrace extending over northeastern Sicily. Several sites in this sedimentary cover (Taormina, Cape Tindari, Rocca Scodoni, Acquedolci) contain rich vertebrate assemblages comprising remains of elephant, deer and wolf. The remains from Pace del Mela and at Villafranca Tirrena document the vertebrate populations of the broad late Pleistocene coastal plain, now uplifted to heights of 110-80 m a.s.l.