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A key site for inferring the timing of dispersal of giant deer in Sardinia, the Su Fossu de Cannas cave, Sadali, Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Rita Teresa Melis ,
Maria Rita Palombo ,
Bassam Ghaleb  and
Serafino Meloni
Rita Teresa Melis*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical and Geological Science, University of Cagliari, Via Trentino 51, 09127 Cagliari, Italy
Maria Rita Palombo
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale A. Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy
Bassam Ghaleb
Affiliation:
Montreal University— UQAM, GEOTOP-McGill Laboratory, H3C 3P8, Canada
Serafino Meloni
Affiliation:
Via Tanit, 18, San Sperate, Cagliari, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:[email protected](R.T. Melis)
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Abstract

Su Fossu de Cannas (SFC) cave is one of several known cavities in the Sadali plateau in Sardinia, Italy. The evolution of the cave is the result of complex erosional and deposital processes that occurred during the Neogene and Quaternary. A fossiliferous cemented conglomerate, containing various deer remains, now forms the ceiling of a cavity (tunnel). The faunal remains belong to a large cervid, which show some morphological affinity with large deer that have an endemic Sardinian lineage (Praemegaceros sardous — Praemegaceros cazioti). Palaeoecological data based on some peculiar features and the large size of the SFC deer suggest that it is the most primitive Megacerine found in Sardinia to date, and the first representative of the endemic lineage. The 450 ka U—Th age for the flowstone capping the fossiliferous layer defines: the end of sedimentation in which Sadali deer remains are preserved; and the dispersal from the mainland of the ancestor of the endemic Sardinian Megacerini. Stratigraphic and micromorphological analyses of the cave deposits allow the reconstruction of the timing of the cave’s development throughout the Pliocene to the Holocene.

Keywords

CavePaleoenvironmental reconstructionMiddle PleistoceneCervidU/Th datingCentral-eastern Sardinia
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 86 , Issue 3 , November 2016 , pp. 335 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington 2016

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