57 research outputs found
Human peopling of Italian intramontane basins: The early Middle Pleistocene site of Pagliare di Sassa (L’Aquila, central Italy)
Multidisciplinary investigations at Pagliare di Sassa (L’Aquila, central Italy) suggest that the local
succession accumulated from the late Early to the early Middle Pleistocene in a lacustrine environment.
In the upper part, clastic sediments are part of an alluvial fan prograding into the lake, grading to
a braided fluvial system. The pollen record confirms that a significant glacial phase occurred just before
the onset of the Jaramillo inversion. These data, coupled with evidence from the nearby but earlier
Madonna della Strada sequence, allow reconstruction of part of the environmental evolution of L’Aquila
basin before the Jaramillo Subchron. The mammal species of Pagliare di Sassa include Stephanorhinus
hundsheimensis, mostly of open environments, already present at Madonna della Strada. The faunal
turnover characterizing the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition is indicated by the appearances of taxa
typical of the Italian early to middle Galerian faunas, such as Praemegaceros verticornis, together with
Megaloceros savini. The occurrence of Mimomys savini together with Microtus ex gr. Microtus hintonigregaloides
suggests that this assemblage is earlier than the Isernia La Pineta fauna. A flint implement and
a fragmentary herbivore femur with impact scars probably linked to human activity give evidence of the
human peopling of intramontane basins of the Apennine chain since the early Middle Pleistocene.Published170-1782.2. Laboratorio di paleomagnetismoJCR Journalrestricte
The Late Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from Avetrana (Taranto, Apulia, Southern Italy): Preliminary report.
The Late Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from Avetrana (Taranto, Apulia, Southern Italy): Preliminary report.
The Campanian Ignimbrite and Codola tephra layers: Two temporal/stratigraphic markers for the Early Upper Palaeolithic in southern Italy and eastern Europe
Tephra layers from archaeological sites in southern Italy and eastern Europe stratigraphically associated with
cultural levels containing Early Upper Palaeolithic industry were analysed. The results confirm the
occurrence of the Campanian Ignimbrite tephra (CI; ca. 40 cal ka BP) at Castelcivita Cave (southern Italy),
Temnata Cave (Bulgaria) and in the Kostenki–Borshchevo area of the Russian Plain. This tephra, originated
from the largest eruption of the Phlegrean Field caldera, represents the widest volcanic deposit and one of
the most important temporal/stratigraphic markers of western Eurasia. At Paglicci Cave and lesser sites in the
Apulia region we recognise a chemically and texturally different tephra, which lithologically, chronologically
and chemically matches the physical and chemical characteristics of the Plinian eruption of Codola; a poorly
known Late Pleistocene explosive event from the Neapolitan volcanoes, likely Somma–Vesuvius. For this
latter, we propose a preliminary age estimate of ca. 33 cal ka BP and a correlation to the widespread C-10
marine tephra of the central Mediterranean. The stratigraphic position of both CI and Codola tephra layers at
Castelcivita and Paglicci help date the first and the last documented appearance of Early Upper Palaeolithic
industries of southern Italy to ca. 41–40 and 33 cal ka BP, respectively, or between two interstadial
oscillations of the Monticchio pollen record – to which the CI and Codola tephras are physically correlated –
corresponding to the Greenland interstadials 10–9 and 5. In eastern Europe, the stratigraphic and
chronometric data seem to indicate an earlier appearance of the Early Upper Palaeolithic industries, which
would predate of two millennia at least the overlying CI tephra. The tephrostratigraphic correlation indicates
that in both regions the innovations connected with the so-called Early Upper Palaeolithic – encompassing
subsistence strategy and stone tool technology – appeared and evolved during one of the most unstable
climatic phases of the Last Glacial period. On this basis, the marked environmental unpredictability
characterising this time-span is seen as a potential ecological factor involved in the cultural changes
observed
Epigenetic Transitions and Knotted Solitons in Stretched Chromatin
The spreading and regulation of epigenetic marks on chromosomes is crucial to
establish and maintain cellular identity. Nonetheless, the dynamical mechanism
leading to the establishment and maintenance of a given, cell-line specific,
epigenetic pattern is still poorly understood. In this work we propose, and
investigate in silico, a possible experimental strategy to illuminate the
interplay between 3D chromatin structure and epigenetic dynamics. We consider a
set-up where a reconstituted chromatin fibre is stretched at its two ends
(e.g., by laser tweezers), while epigenetic enzymes (writers) and
chromatin-binding proteins (readers) are flooded into the system. We show that,
by tuning the stretching force and the binding affinity of the readers for
chromatin, the fibre undergoes a sharp transition between a stretched,
epigenetically disordered, state and a crumpled, epigenetically coherent, one.
We further investigate the case in which a knot is tied along the chromatin
fibre, and find that the knotted segment enhances local epigenetic order,
giving rise to "epigenetic solitons" which travel and diffuse along chromatin.
Our results point to an intriguing coupling between 3D chromatin topology and
epigenetic dynamics, which may be investigated via single molecule experiments.Comment: Accepted version; Supplementary movies can be found at
http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/~dmichiel/KnottedSolitons.html and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osghh9nEhe
Osservazioni sulla fauna a vertebrati pleistocenici della Grotta Cola (Abruzzo, Aquila).
Morphological and biometrical defferences in the limb bones of Ursus arctos and Ursus spelaeus and phylogenetical considerations on the two species.
The Late Pleistocene and Holocene Mammals in Italy: new biochronological and paleoenvironmental data.
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