Saverio Bartolini-Lucenti

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• Doctor of Philosophy
• Researcher at University of Florence

Geo-palaeontological sites are essential for scientific inquiry, education, conservation, cultural preservation, and even economic development. This study revisits 30 geo-palaeontological sites in the Piemonte region, originally assessed in 2004 thanks to the collaboration of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Turin, the Museo Pa...

Saber-toothed cats dominated latest Pliocene to Early Pleistocene ecosystems in the Old World, potentially competing with early hominins for food resources. However, the Pleistocene fossil records of the medium-sized Megantereon are often fragmented and scarce, leading to contentious debates among scholars regarding its evolutionary history. Previo...

he cave lion lineage records from Spain, Portugal, and Italy hold immense paleobiological significance, offering both recent insights and future potential for discoveries. The Iberian record is particularly noteworthy as it includes the earliest evidence of steppe lions in Western Europe, illuminating their possible migration routes. Additionally,...

The Vallparadís Section encompasses various geological layers that span a significant chronological range, extending from the latest Early Pleistocene to the early Middle Pleistocene, covering a timeframe from approximately 1.2 to 0.6 Ma. This period holds particular importance as it coincides with a significant climatic transition known as the Ear...

Otters, subfamily Lutrinae (Mustelidae), are predators that thrive in aquatic environments, and have a semiaquatic to fully aquatic lifestyle. While modern otters are found across the globe, their fossil history is limited, primarily documented by fragmented dentognathic remains. In this work, we report on and describe new dental remains of a mediu...

The uppermost Miocene sedimentary record from the Italian peri-Tyrrhenian areas, specifically Tuscany and Sardinia, reveals the occurrence of a unique paleobiogeographic region. This region stands out for its peculiar vertebrate ecosystem, displaying endemic features that differentiate it from the contemporaneous mammal faunas of Europe and Africa...

I geositi sono luoghi di importanza geo-paleontologica e la raccolta di dati inerenti ad essi può dare impulso a future indagini per la loro gestione e conservazione. Qui viene applicata a due siti piemontesi, Cava Ex Fornace RDB e Valle Botto (Pavia et al. 2004), un’innovativa procedura per la valutazione analitica della rilevanza di siti fossilif...

Taphonomic deformation, whether it be brittle or plastic, is possibly the most influential process hindering the correct understanding of fossil species morphology. This is especially true if the deformation affects type specimens or applies to or obscures taxonomically diagnostic or functionally significant traits. Target Deformation, a recently d...

The fossil records of the cheetahs in eastern Asia are is rare, and mostly fragmented, then and in theconsequence, the evolution of this lineage in eastern Asia remained remains obscure. In this study, we report the new material from two early Middle Pleistocene sites, the upper deposits (L2) of Jinyuan Cave (Dalian) and Zhoukoudian Loc.13 (Beijing...

Fossil badgers of the genus Meles are known in Eurasia since the Late Pliocene but their record is utterly scarce, often represented by isolated remains. This led to taxonomic confusion and hindered phylogenetic reconstruction of the genus. Here we describe in detail all the material attributed to M. thorali from the Early Pleistocene locality of S...

(1) Background: despite the fact that nowadays the genus Vulpes Frisch, 1775, is the most diverse among extant Canidae, its fossil record is utterly scarce, especially in the Asian Pliocene. The sparse nature of this record further complicates the reconstruction of the evolutionary scenario to fit these taxa with extant species. The situation seems...

An in-depth study of the Early Pleistocene European remains of Hippopotamus has allowed the first detailed description of the incidence and types of dental alterations related to palaeopathologies and potentially linked to climatic and environmental factors. The results of a long-term qualitative and quantitative assessment highlight the importance...

This study has analyzed the development of the frontal sinus in three different species of genus Eucyon (Mammalia, Canidae). The frontal sinuses are cavity of the cranium within the frontal bone, whose origin and evolutionary relevance are still poorly understood and debated even in extant canids. Moreover, no prior study has taken in consideration...

We present the revision of the fossil hyaenid Plioviverrops faventinus (latest Miocene, Cava Monticino, Brisighella, RA), probably the last and most derived species of the genus Plioviverrops. After the description of the abundant (and unpublished) cranial and dental material of this species, we focused on the morphological and morphometrical compa...

Pachycrocuta brevirostris is one of the most abundantly recorded carnivoran species during the late Early Pleistocene in European large mammal assemblages. During the last decades controversies regarding its feeding behavior arose. Some researchers advocate for a strictly scavenging behavior and a kleptoparasitic relationship with sabertoothed cats...

Megantereon was a leopard-sized cat recorded during the Pliocene and Pleistocene of the Old World. Its fragmentary record prompted a hot debate during the last decades between scholars advocating for a single species and others who identified several forms and dispersal events. Here we revise the earliest records of Megantereon in Europe including...

Every year, hundreds of square kilometres are affected by land development projects that may result in the destruction of everything preserved in the sediments. Geopalaeontological heritage, however, rarely receives the same legislative attention reserved to the archaeological one. Part of the problem seems to be, at least in some contexts, the dif...

Introduction: Paleontological heritage rarely receives the same legislative attention as archeological heritage. Part of the problem seems to be, at least in some contexts (e.g., Italy), the difficulty of acknowledging fossils as distinct assets from other cultural heritage objects and the lack of expertise among the administrative functionaries. T...

Introduction The phylogenetic and ecological importance of paranasal sinuses in carnivorans was highlighted by several previous authors, mostly in extant species. Nevertheless, no specific study on this feature on extant canids, and no one on fossil representatives of the family, has been published up to now. Here, we analyze for the first time the...

In 2017, a hemimandible (MW5-B208), corresponding to the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), was found in a stratigraphically-controlled and radio-isotopically-dated sequence of the Melka Wakena paleoanthropological site-complex, on the Southeastern Ethiopian Highlands ,~2300 m above sea level. The specimen is the first and unique Pleistocene fossil o...

In this manuscript, we present a preliminary report on the use of virtual palaeontology methodologies in two natural history museums in central Italy, the Geology and Paleontology Museum of Florence and the Civic Museum of Natural Sciences of Faenza. Despite the differences between the museums (in terms of history, type and size of the collections,...

This chapter introduces the beginning of Pleistocene vertebrate records, starting from an overview of the Plio-Pleistocene transition. Understanding the Early Pleistocene vertebrate record is impossible without the knowledge of the events characterizing the setting of Early Pleistocene land vertebrate communities. A number of taxa are selected to d...

The late Villafranchian is one of the pivotal time-spans in the succession of Pleistocene European faunal assemblages, setting the bases for the major faunal renewal that characterized the continent during the Epivillafranchian. Bison is one of the most important and successful large mammals to spread in Europe at the latest stages of the Early Ple...

In recent years, Italian scientific paleontological community and administrations are progressively rethinking their approaches and actions to the management of the national paleontological heritage. For this purpose, pivotal research has been organized at the Earth Science Dept. of the University of Florence (a PhD project and a Research grant wit...

Late Pleistocene cave lions are one of the most iconic species of Northern Hemisphere Quaternary taphocoenoses. Despite their often-scarce record in cave environments, their ubiquitous distribution across Eurasia and North America assemblages attests to their position as top ice-age predators. Nevertheless, the origins of these former large felids,...

The Italian paleontologist Giovanni Capellini (1833-1922), internationally renowned for his studies on cetaceans, was the first to discover one of the most important sites for European land mammals biochronology of the Pliocene and Pleistocene, Montopoli (Pisa province; Tuscany). Excavated during the second half of the nineteenth century by the Swi...

Homotherium was one of the most widely distributed felids, both geographically and chronologically. Records of this genus were found from the early Pliocene to the latest Late Pleistocene in Eurasia, Africa and America. Late Pleistocene Eurasian and American fossils, usually considered as representing two different species and well-known thanks to...

Homotherium rappresenta uno dei generi di maggior successo del record fossile della famiglia Felidae, con amplissima distribuzione geografica e stratigrafica che spazia dall’Eurasia, all’Africa e all’America, dal Pliocene Inferiore fino alla fine del Pleistocene. Nonostante le popolazioni del Pleistocene Superiore dell’Eurasia e del Nord America si...

Collecurti (Colfiorito Basin, Italy) is one of the few Early Pleistocene localities in Mediterranean Europe that records the Jaramillo subchron (1.07–0.99 Ma) and the core of the EMPT (Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition). The Collecurti mammal assemblage was selected as the reference for the homonymous Faunal Unit in the Italian large mammal bioch...

In Italia la normativa che regola la raccolta, lo scavo e la conservazione dei beni paleontologici risulta inadeguata a far fronte alle necessità di tutela del patrimonio paleontologico. Il progetto PaleoValRis (acronimo di “Sviluppo di uno strumento innovativo per la Valorizzazione del patrimonio PALEOntologico in Toscana e la Valutazione del suo...

Among the vertebrates found at Cava Monticino, carnivorans are by far the most abundant of all the large mammals. Five different taxa were recovered: one felid, two hyaenids, one canid, and one mustelid. The small-sized felid remains can be attributed to Felis christoli and seems to represent one of the earliest records of a true member of the genu...

We undertake a comparative mammalian zoogeographic analysis with the aim of revealing the extent to which the Dmanisi Early Pleistocene large mammal assemblage resembles, at the genus level, African, Arabian, and Eurasian localities of similar age. The inclusion of Old World Pliocene and Pleistocene mammalian faunas provides us with insights into t...

Unlike their medium-sized relatives of the genus Canis, whose arrival is dated around 3 Ma, the appearance in western Europe of large-sized hypercarnivorous canids took place at the beginning of the late Villafranchian (ca 2 Ma). Here, we report the earliest occurrence in this part of Eurasia of a Canis (Xenocyon) from the French site of Roca-Neya...

Among macrovertebrates found at Cava Monticino, carnivorans are by far the most numerous in terms of abundance of their records. Five different taxa were recovered: one felid, two hyaenids, one canid and one mustelid. The smallsized felid remains can be attributed to Felis cf. christoli and thus seem to represent one of the earliest records of a tr...

The carnivore guild of the Early Pleistocene site of Dmanisi is among the most diverse of the Early Pleistocene of the entire Old World. It includes 14 carnivoran taxa: Homotherium latidens, Megantereon whitei, Panthera onca georgica, Acinonyx pardinensis, Lynx issiodorensis; Pachycrocuta brevirostris; Canis (Xenocyon) lycaonoides, Canis borjgali,...

A mandible fragment and four isolated teeth of the fossil foxes, Vulpes alopecoides (Del Campana, 1913), Vulpes cf. vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758) and Vulpes sp., are described from the Early Pleistocene locality of Taurida cave (Crimea, Late Villafranchian, 1.8-1.5 Ma). Based on the size and morphological features, a mandible fragment and two M1 are attr...

The Sardinian dhole (Cynotherium sardous) was an iconic and unique canid species that was endemic to Sardinia and Corsica until it became extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Given its peculiar dental morphology, small body size, and high level of endemism, several extant canids have been proposed as possible relatives of the Sardinian dhole...

Late Early Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages in the Mediterranean area have sparked the interest of the scientific community in the last two decades mainly thanks to the discovery of fossils and/or stone tools testifying to the presence of early Homo. However, our knowledge of most of these assemblages is biased by the lack of well-constrained chr...

A mandible fragment and four isolated teeth of the fossil foxes, Vulpes alopecoides (Del Campana, 1913), Vulpes cf. vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758) and Vulpes sp., are described from the Early Pleistocene locality of Taurida cave (Crimea, Late Villafranchian, 1.8–1.5 Ma). Based on the size and morphological features, a mandible fragment and two M1 are attr...

The renowned site of Dmanisi in Georgia, southern Caucasus (ca. 1.8 Ma) yielded the earliest direct evidence of hominin presence out of Africa. In this paper, we report on the first record of a large-sized canid from this site, namely dentognathic remains, referable to a young adult individual that displays hypercarnivorous features (e.g., the redu...

The Pliocene record of genus Vulpes Frisch, 1775 in Eurasia is scarce, coming from few sparse locali-ties. The lack of a comprehensive and integrated revision led to the description of numerous different taxa, often only tentatively related to extant species but not with one another. Çalta-1 is an important Pliocene site located in the Anatolian re...

Extant red fox, Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1757), is a small- to medium-sized mesocarnivorous canid whose earliest records are reported to the early Middle Pleistocene in Europe. Its origin has always been related to the Early Pleistocene European Vulpes alopecoides (Del Campana, 1913), for the numerous comparable morphological and morphometric featu...

The latest Early Pleistocene (Epivillafranchian; 1.2-0.8 Ma) is one of the best-known geological periods in the Iberian Peninsula thanks to the abundance of chronologically well-known sites as well as for their species diversity. Among these sites, the most remarkable are: the Vallparadís Section (ca. 1.2-0.6 Ma), the Incarcal complex (ca. 0.8 Ma),...

Free download - Share Link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1d6d8AlZXMPNI Abstract_Rhinocerotidae represents a common element in the Eurasian Pleistocene faunas. Origin, dispersal route, and biochronology of several species are still poorly understood due to gaps in the fossil record, in particular from central Eurasia. A remarkable collection of r...

We describe small-sized specimens of the metailurine felid Dinofelis from a new Plio-Pleistocene site in North Africa. Dinofelis is a genus of saber-toothed cats mainly recorded from East and South Africa with numerous leopard to jaguar-sized species. The described specimens, clearly smaller than all the other African Dinofelis, resemble isolated r...

The late Miocene was a period of great radiation for the subfamily Caninae in North America. During this time, the early taxa of the two tribes of this subfamily, Vulpini and Canini, arose. Among them, Eucyon is one of the most important elements of the latest Miocene-Pliocene Canidae guild of both North America and Eurasia as they rapidly spread w...

The site of Venta Micena (Orce, Spain), c. 1.6 Ma, preserves one the best paleontological records of the early Pleistocene large mammals fauna in Europe. Here we describe the specimens of the genus Canis Linnaeus, 1758 in the context of the late Villafranchian and Epivillafranchian fossil dogs from Eurasia. Anatomical and metric data suggest that t...

Dentognathic remains of European Middle Pleistocene Vulpini are scarce and fragmentary. They have classically been attributed to several species, but many taxonomic and phylogenetic uncertainties remain. Here we describe a fox well-preserved maxilla with associated mandible from the Middle Pleistocene layers of the Vallparadís Section (EVT3; ca. 0....

the Yushe Basin (Shanxi, china) represent one of the most renowned location of china for its uppest Miocene-lower Pleistocene fossiliferous beds, with an outstanding record of vertebrates, often reference to other asian localities. Fossils from the town of Xiakou are considered among the oldest records (late Gaozhuang-earliest Mazegouan) of Eucyon...

The Sardinian dhole (Cynotherium sardous) was an iconic and unique canid species of canid that was endemic of Sardinia and Corsica until it became extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Given its peculiar dental morphology, small body size and high level of endemism, several canids have been proposed as possible ancestors of the Sardinian dhol...

Riassunto - Negli ultimi due decenni l'utilizzo di tecniche 3D imaging e tecnologie associate (stampa 3D, realtà virtuale o aumentata) ha guadagnato sempre più terreno in discipline legate al patrimonio culturale e a contesti museali. La raccolta di questo tipo di dati è diventato uno strumento valido in vari campi museologici: analisi e conservazi...

The renowned site of Dmanisi in Georgia, southern Caucasus (ca. 1.8 Ma) yielded the earliest direct evidence of hominin presence out of Africa. In this paper, we report the first record of a large-sized canid from this site, namely dentognathic remains, referable to a young adult individual that displays hypercarnivorous features (e.g., the reducti...

two archaeo-palaeontological lower Pleistocene sites of orce (Baza Basin, Se Spain), Fuente nueva 3 (1.3 Ma) and Barranco león (1.4 Ma), preserve some of the earliest evidence of human presence in the euro-pean continent. During the 2013 field season, a small Lyncodontini mustelid mandible was found at Fuente Nueva-3. This finding was accompanied b...

In this study, we report for the first time the presence of Cuon alpinus from the Late Pleistocene site of Ingarano (Foggia, southern Italy), represented by an right upper first molar. Considering the intricate and debated taxonomy of fossil dholes, our comparative analyses on dental samples (P 4 , M 1 , and M 1) of the extant and Middle to Late Pl...

During the 1980s, a Pliocene canid from Baja California Sur, Mexico, was described as a new Cerdocyon species, C. avius. Whereas some investigators believe that C. avius was related to the origin of South American foxes of the tribe Cerdocyonina, others suggested that it is related to members of the tribe Vulpini. Our observations and analyses conf...

In the complex scenario of Plio–Pleistocene mammalian faunal turnovers, recent research on canids has revealed an increasingly higher number of species than previously thought. In this framework, Georgia had a key role in the biogeographic dispersion of fauna from/to Asia, Africa, and Europe. Historically attributed to Canis etruscus, the rich Cani...

Fossil foxes, genus Vulpes, are known since the Late Miocene of North America and the Old World but their record is utterly scarce, fragmentary, and referred to a number of different species, often of uncertain affinity. Although the European Pleistocene fossil record of foxes is relatively more abundant, several species were described on the basis...

The molar ratio method presented by Acta Zoologica (98, 2016, 292) is a valid way to estimate the dietary differences between extant subspecies of the raccoon dog genus, Nyctereutes. Particularly, higher values of the molar ratio implies more omnivous diet than lower ones. With the same technique is possible to infer variations in the diet of extin...

The Early Pliocene site of Layna (MN15, ca 3.9 Ma) is renowned for its record of several mammalian taxa, among which the raccoon-dog Nyctereutes donnezani. Since the early description of this sample, new fossils of raccoon-dogs have been discovered, including a nearly complete cranium. The analysis and revision here proposed, with new diagnoses for...

Although Nyctereutes is nowadays monospecific, the fossil record suggests a larger diversity and wider distribution. The study of a large sample from numerous sites of the Old World allowed a critical revision at an intercontinental scale. Some specimens of Layna and the sample from Çalta reveal peculiar morphologies, contrasting with the attributi...

The insular environment of Sardinia is renowned for its extensive palaeontological Palaeogene record, extending from the Eocene until recent times. In Sardinia, one of the most important localities for Quaternary faunas is the fillings of the karst fissures of the Monte Tuttavista site complex, which contain an impressive amount of fossil remains o...

A number of recent genetic and systematic reviews have changed our knowledge of the taxonomy of Mustelidae. In particular, the subfamily Galictinae Reig, 1956 has been recently grouped in the subfamily Ictonychinae Pocock, 1921. Among the Eurasian fossil taxa of this subfamily, the first to be described were Enhydrictis Major, 1901 and Pannonictis...

A number of recent genetic and systematic reviews have changed our knowledge of the taxonomy of Mustelidae. In particular, the subfamily Galictinae Reig, 1956 has been recently grouped in the subfamily Ictonychinae Pocock, 1921. Among the Eurasian fossil taxa of this subfamily, the first to be described were Enhydrictis Major, 1901 and Pannonictis...

The modern wolf, Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758, has one of the largest ranges amongst carnivorans, and for this reason it shows local and regional differences for adaptation to a great variety of habitats, ranging from the arctic tundra to the Arabian desert. These differences are particularly evident as wolves follow the Bergmann's ecogeographical ru...

The outstanding fossil record of the Upper Valdarno Basin is renown since the XV century. Its Early Pleistocene sample of canids, characterized by the large sized Lycaon falconeri and the medium-sized Canis arnensis and Canis etruscus, has laid the basis for the study of the evolution of the genus Canis in Western Eurasia. In recent years, several...

Unlike the Asian and North American Pliocene record, fossil occurrences of Canidae in Europe (and Africa) are uncommon and fragmentary. The revision of canid material from the late Pliocene site of Kvabebi (eastern Georgia) revealed the contemporaneous occurrence of three different taxa: (1) Nyctereutes megamastoides (a derived species of the Euras...

The North African fossil record of the family Canidae is scarce and scattered and for this reason poorly known. This is particularly true for the genus Canis, fossils of which only come from a few sites of Morocco and Algeria. Here, we provide the description of the first material of Canis from the early Middle Pleistocene site of Wadi Sarrat (Tuni...

Among living canids, the genus Nyctereutes Temminck, 1838 was the first to appear in the Western European fossil record. In the Italian Peninsula, scanty remains from a few Plio-Pleistocene localities of central Italy, referable to the Triversa Faunal Unit (FU) and the Montopoli FU, were historically attributed to Nyctereutes megamastoides (Pomel,...

La revisione del materiale di mustelidi proveniente dal Monte Tuttavista (Orosei, Nuoro) ha prodotto interessanti risultati riguardo alla diversità specifica di questo gruppo tassonomico nell'isola durante il Pleistocene inferiore e medio. I materiali analizzati, custoditi nelle collezioni del Museo Archeologico di Nuoro, provengono dal sistema di...

In Italia sono numerosi i siti paleontologici con resti di macro- e microvertebrati fossili tardo Pleistocenici provenienti da contesti ipogei o concentrati all’interno di cavità naturali. La maggior parte di queste località sono conosciute e molto ben documentate nella letteratura fin dall’inizio del XX secolo. In Toscana meridionale sono concentr...

Several species of the genus Canis (Carnivora: Canidae) have been recorded from the European Early Pleistocene, but the phylogenetic relationships among them and in relation to extant members of this genus are still unclear. This is particularly true for the medium-sized and wolf-like extinct species Canis mosbachensis. It has been considered by ma...

The description of the new material of C. arnensis recovered from Poggio Rosso offers new insight on this Early Pleistocene species.

Taxonomical and morphological revision of canid fossil sample from selected localities of Spain, Italy and Georgia shed new light on Canidae phylogeny and paleoecology. The present study is based on the morphometrical evaluation of cranial and dental features. Five taxa have been recognized, three well-characterized in literature, while two are tho...

Background The effect of past climatic changes on the distribution of organisms is a fertile field of research that has been tackled in many different ways. Because the fossil record provides direct access to the chronological and geographic dimensions of biological events occurred in the past, it can be a useful tool for assessing range contractio...

Tra le varie metodologie del restauro di materiale paleontologico, questa comunicazione presenta gli interventi che hanno permesso il restauro di un reperto contenente resti appartenenti a uno o più esemplari di tartaruga rinvenuti nei pressi di Baccinello (GR). Il fossile è stato recuperato dal bacino neoautoctono di Baccinello-Cinigiano, in sedim...

Tra le varie metodologie del restauro di materiale paleontologico, questa comunicazione presenta gli interventi che hanno permesso il restauro di un reperto contenente resti appartenenti a uno o più esemplari di tartaruga rinvenuti nei pressi di Baccinello (GR). Il fossile è stato recuperato dal bacino neoautoctono di Baccinello-Cinigiano, in sedim...