The Early Pleistocene in Latium (Central Italy): palaeoecology from benthic foraminiferal record

The palaeoecological information upon Santernian benthic foraminiferal assemblages collected in the 1990s from many sites in Latium has been gathered and analysed in order to create a regionally consistent picture of the palaeoenvironment. Three sites were selected because they were considered most significant (Valle Ricca, Monte Mario and the Anzio coast), and were studied using statistical analysis in order to identify the different structural and palaeomorphogical settings. Cluster analysis identified the presence of three main environments (lower circalittoral, upper circalittoral and infralittoral), which confirm the palaeoecological results obtained from previous quantitative studies. The identification of the benthic assemblages that are indicative of these environments at other sites was used to reconstruct the regional palaeoenvironmental evolution during the Santernian. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.