Multidisciplinary study of a new Quaternary mammal-bearing site from Ellera di Corciano (Central Umbria, Italy): preliminary data.

A new fossil mammal-bearing site was discovered at Ellera di Corciano (PG) on April, 2011 in a building site where a large mall is under construction. The first bones were recovered by one of the Authors (T.C.), during a survey for archeological purposes. Excavations were funded and directed by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Umbria, with the scientific and technical support of the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Perugia. Excavations for paleontological purposes were carried out till August, 2011 and allowed to recover more than 200 vertebrate specimens, mainly referred to large mammals. Bone samples were discovered within three different clay levels in a span of ~ 3 m (height of the lowest specimen: 246.2 m; height of the highest specimen: 249.4 m above sea level). In the lower mammal-bearing level, called “hippo level”, a partial skeleton of Hippopotamus cf. H. antiquus was found, together with other isolated and fragmented bones. Most of the collection (more than 100 samples) was recovered from the intermediate level; the state of preservation was good on the whole, even if almost all the bones were fragmented, suggesting a certain degree of water transport.