The Early Pleistocene Equidae from Pirro Nord (Apricena, Southern Italy)

Fossil horse remains from Pirro Nord (Southern Italy) are described and compared with the late Early to Middle Pleistocene equids from the main sites of Western and Central Europe (Spain, France, Italy and Germany). Morphological features and dimensions indicate the unequal occurrence of two horses, close in morphology but different in size as supported by the statistical analyses (PCA and DA) performed including the most significant samples of Spain (Venta Micena, Barranco Leon-5, Fuente Nueva-3, Huescar-1, Cullar de Baza-1), France (Soleilhac), Italy (Venosa Loreto, Ponte Galeria), and Germany (Sussenborn, Untermassfeld). The middle-sized horse is identified as Equus altidens altidens VON REICHENAU, 1915, its similarity with to the late early to Early Middle Pleistocene specimens from Guadix-Baza basin and Sussenborn is briefly discussed in order to chronologically assess the Pirro Nord "population". The second species Equus suessenbornensis WUST, 1900, poorly represented, is larger and close to the type population of Sussenborn, as well to the latest Early-early Middle Pleistocene large equids from South-Eastern Spain (Cullar de Baza-1 and Huescar-1), and Italy (Venosa Loreto).