Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of the S眉tt艖 Travertine Complex (Hungary)

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• 作者：Piroska Pazonyi ; L谩szl贸 Kordos ; Enik艖 Magyari ; Elena Marinova ; Levente F眉k艖h ; M谩rton Venczel
• 刊名：Quaternary International
• 出版年：15 January, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：319
• 期：Complete
• 页码：50-63
• 全文大小：1956 K

文摘

Numerous fossil remains (vertebrates, molluscs and plants) were found in more than twenty sites of the S眉tt艖 Travertine Complex during the last 150 years. The majority of these remains were recovered from fissures of the travertine, but also from the travertine and an overlying loess-paleosol sequence. The aims of this study were to review the fossil content, to determine the stratigraphical positions of the various vertebrate faunas of S眉tt艖 and provide paleoecological interpretation of the periods on the basis of their faunas and floras. In addition, this paper describes new faunas and floras from the sites S眉tt艖 16-20 and provides ¹⁴C dates for S眉tt艖 16.

On the basis of the new uranium series isotope and optical dating (OSL), the age of the travertine complex is Middle Pleistocene (235聽卤聽21-314聽卤聽45聽ka, MIS 7-9), while the age of the loess-paleosol sequence in superposition of the travertine is Middle-Late Pleistocene (MIS 2-MIS 6). In contrast, the fossils of the travertine indicated an older, Pliocene-Early Pleistocene age. A fissure (S眉tt艖 17) and a red clay layer (S眉tt艖 19) contained mammal faunas of Early-Middle Pleistocene age. These results indicated the existence of older travertine in certain quarries (Hegyh谩ti quarry, Cukor quarry).

Sedimentological and OSL data of well-dated layers of the loess-paleosol sequence (S眉tt艖/LPS) at S眉tt艖 allowed a correlation with the layers of S眉tt艖 6. The paleosol layer in the upper part of the sequence of S眉tt艖 6, was correlated with a pedocomplex of the overlying loess-paleosol sequence, which was dated to MIS 5c (upper, dark soil) and MIS 5e (lower, reddish brown soil). The paleoecological analysis of the mammal and mollusc faunas supported the former interpretation of inferring warm, dry climate during the sedimentation of the upper layers, and more humid climate for the lower layers). However, the fauna of the lower soil layer indicated cold climate, so an age of MIS 5d is suggested.

Dating of the fissure faunas is based on similarity studies. For some faunas, this method cannot be used, because of the low number of species. On the basis of the species compositions and former interpretations, these faunas originated mainly from sediments that were deposited under cold climatic conditions. Other fissure faunas were dated by AMS ¹⁴C (S眉tt艖 16), or by correlation with soil layers of S眉tt艖 6. According to these results, most of the fissure faunas can be correlated with different phases of MIS 5. However, there are a younger (MIS 2) and an older (Early-Middle Pleistocene) fissure fauna also.