Testing the effect of bleaching on the bivalve Glycymeris: a case study of amino acid geochronology on key Mediterranean raised beach deposits

This work focuses on the bivalve Glycymeris, commonly used in classic amino acid racemisation (AAR) studies in the Mediterranean, as part of an extensive assessment of the suitability of intra-crystalline protein diagenesis (IcPD) dating. We test the closed system behaviour (a prerequisite for IcPD studies) of Glycymeris through bleaching and heating studies, as well as fossil material sourced from Last Interglacial deposits in Sardinia (Calamosca), Mallorca (Palma Bay) and Tunisia (Hergla). Although bleaching appears to be effective in isolating an intra-crystalline fraction of proteins, this fraction may not behave as a closed system in all molluscan taxa, as we verify here for some of the fossil Glycymeris.We show that open-system behaviour can be identified by analysing the co-variance between FAA and THAA fractions and the relative THAA composition and we also provide further evidence that, for taphonomic reasons, dating the molluscan fauna does not necessarily yield age information for the sedimentary units when these contain derived shells

Towards a map of the Upper Pleistocene loess of the Po Plain Loess Basin (Northern Italy)

Upper Pleistocene (MIS 4-2) loess sequences occur in most of continental Europe and in Northern Italy along the Po Plain Loess Basin. Loess is distributed along the flanks of the Po Plain and was deposited on glacial deposits, fluvial terraces, uplifted isolated hills, karst plateaus, slopes and basins of secondary valleys. Loess bodies are generally tiny and affected by pedogenesis, being locally slightly reworked by slope processes and bioturbation. Notwithstanding, loess in the Po Plain is an important archive of paleoenviron-mental record and its mapping provides new insights in paleoenvironmental and palaeoseismic reconstructions of Northern Ital

Correction to: The Transition from Hunting–Gathering to Food Production in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia

The article The Transition from Hunting–Gathering to Food Production in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopi

Carta Geologica d’Italia alla scala 1:50.000 F.428 Arzachena.

SELCA Editric