The Pleistocene vertebrate fauna of the Oricola-Carsoli intermontane Basin (Latium-Abruzzi, Italy): state of the art and historical review

A review of the abundant vertebrate fauna found in the Quaternary deposits of the Oricola-Carsoli intermontane Basin is here presented, with a brief excursus on the history of the research in this area and some biochronological considerations on these faunal assemblages. Palaeoloxodon antiquus, Hippopotamus cf. antiquus, and Stephanorhinus sp. remains were found in the 19th century in the municipalities of Vallinfreda and Riofreddo and only described in pioneering studies by the Italian geologists and palaeontologists Giuseppe Ponzi and Alessandro Portis. After some accidental findings of other bones, never described, a hippopotamus was found in 1980 in Riofreddo and, subsequently, during fieldworks led by Aldo Giacomo Segre of the Italian Institute of Human Palaeontology (IsIPU), a very rich vertebrate fauna was found in the municipality of Oricola (L'Aquila). All the available bone material, most of which never studied, described, or mentioned before, is currently stored in different repositories and here has been re-evaluated and briefly described. Two distinct faunal assemblages have been detected; the older is ascribable to the late Villafranchian ELMA (European Land Mammal Age) and is characterised by Pseudodama cf. nestii, Leptobos aff. furtivus, Equus stenonis, Stephanorhinus etruscus, Mammuthus meridionalis, and other taxa. The younger assemblage is ascribable to the Galerian ELMA and is characterised by Palaeoloxodon antiquus, Hippopotamus cf. antiquus and Stephanorhinus sp.