The pleistocene section of Podere Palombaro (Umbria)

Foraminiferal assemblages of a clayey Lower Pleistocene succession at Podere Palombaro (Orvieto, Central Italy) are investigated. The studied section is located in the northern sector of middle and low Tiber valley basin that represents the deepest part of it. The samples yielded external platform assemblages with a high planktonic component characterized by species never reported in coeval sediments of the bordering areas as Globigerina calabra, G. cariacoensis, Globorotalia inflata and Neogloboquadrina dutertrei. The detailed study of the benthic assemblages (morphogroups, infauna/epifauria ratios, autecological characteristics of individual species) made it possible to identify a depositional environment with scarcely oxygenated fine-grained sediments, sometimes with anoxic episodes, referable to the circalittoral/epibathyal zone.