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ARTICLE IN PRESS

32 L. Ferranti et al. / Quaternary International 145– 146 (2006) 30–54

displacements at higher rates than its northern counter- 2. The MIS 5.5 substage in Italy
part (Oldow et al., 2002; Oldow and Ferranti, 2005). The
southern part of peninsular Italy is located above a The ‘‘Tyrrhenian’’ of Issel (1914) was introduced by
lithospheric slab, which is considered responsible for the Gignoux (1913) as a chronostratigraphic subunit and
long-term and the recent uplift of the coastline later formalized as Eutyrrhenian by Bonifay and Mars
(Cosentino and Gliozzi, 1988; Westaway, 1993). How- (1959). The beach deposit exposed at Cala Mosca in
ever, an interplay of regional and local tectonic Sardinia (Fig. 2) was proposed as stratotype of this
processes is needed to explain the large variability in Eutyrrhenian subunit (Couches a Strombe of Gignoux,
amplitude and wavelength of the elevation pattern in 1913). The term ‘‘Tyrrhenian/Eutyrrhenian’’ is based on
different parts of southern and central Italy (Bordoni observations of exposed coastal features indicating the
and Valensise, 1998). Moreover, the record of active sea-level high stand during the last interglacial. The
deformation in recent marine terraces of the northern obvious coincidence between the Eutyrrhenian coastal
Italy coasts is poor. sea-level high stand observations, occasionally sup-
ported by radiometric dating, and the MIS 5.5 sea-level
By reviewing and updating the MIS 5.5 markers, data allowed to define that the MIS 5.5 substage covers
which can be used to broadly outline the vertical the same time period of the Eutyrrhenian subunit.
component of orogenic displacement, this study aims
to verify the tectonic models regarding coastal deforma- During the MIS 5.5, a warm faunal assemblage known
tion in Italy in the last $130 ka and provide accurate as ‘‘senegalaise fauna’’ (Gignoux, 1913), and mainly
vertical displacement rates. Benefiting from local ex- represented by mollusks (i.e. Strombus bubonius, Conus
pertise, we compiled the altitude distribution of the MIS testudinarius, Cardyta calyculata senegalensis, Hyotissa
5.5 marker along the entire Italian coastline, based on hyotis) progressively colonized the Mediterranean shelves.
published papers, to which the reader is referred for The ‘‘senegalaise fauna’’ includes the index fossil S.
more details, and new work. Particular criticism was bubonius LMK, which entered the Mediterranean Sea
devoted to standardize the type of markers that were from Gibraltar and spread over the southern and western
used for database compilation and to stipulate the coasts of the Mediterranean, where hundreds of indivi-
uncertainty associated with altitude and age estimate of duals were found in single outcrops (e.g. Ravagnese and
the markers. The database was used to generate the Taranto in Italy; Dai Pra et al., 1974; Dai Pra,
maps presented in this work, which outline a differential unpublished data, Fig. 3). On the northern Mediterranean
altitude distribution of the MIS 5.5 marker as a result of coast only a few individuals of S. bubonius were found
regional and local tectonic processes. (Federici and Pappalardo, this volume).

Fig. 2. MIS 5.5 marine deposit at Cala Mosca, Sardinia (Site 1 in Fig. 4). The inset shows details of fossils incorporated in the deposit. See Fig. 4 for
site location.