Transitions in human evolution and faunal changes during the Pleistocene in Latium (Central Italy)

Latium is a region along the Tyrrhenian coast of central Italy of utmost interest to test hypotheses concerning human evolution during the Pleistocene and, particularly, in correspondence to crucial stages of transition between different species (and/or subspecies) of the genus Homo. As a matter of fact, our present knowledge about human evolution in the entire Italian peninsula find in Latium great part of the pertinent fossil record (Fig. 1). At the same time, the biochronological setting recently proposed for the Italian Middle Pleistocene large mammal faunas is based on faunal units (FU) that are represented in Latium by many keysites (Gliozzi et al. 1997; Sardella et al. 1998). The scenario of human evolution in Europe overcome the chronological limit posed by the advocates of the so-called "short chronology 59 Transitions in human evolution and faunal changes during the Pleistocene in Latium (Central Italy)

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