Abstract:
Eight marine stages for the Quaternary have been defined in Italy starting from 1872 (Sicilian of Doderlein) to 1979 (Selinuntian of Ruggieri and Sprovieri). The definition of all these stages was based essentially on invertebrate paleontology, initially from the study of pelecypods and gastropods, but also of corals, ostracods, benthic foraminifers and, more recently, on planktonic foraminifers and calcareous nannofossils. The 1948 International Geological Congress held in London decided to search for a locality in Italy to define the Neogene/Quaternary boundary in correspondence with the first appearance of the "northern guests" in the Mediterranean. The Vrica section of Calabria was selected for defining the GSSP of the Pleistocene in 1984. Meanwhile, starting from 1970 the deep-sea record of the western, central and eastern Mediterranean was explored by five Legs of the Deep Sea Drilling Program and Ocean Drilling Program. As a result of integrated, high-resolution multidisciplinary investigations of the deep-sea record and of continuous sections exposed on land, a robust chronostratigraphic framework could be constructed. The combination of biochronology, magnetostratigraphy, isotopic stratigraphy, astrocyclostratigraphy, and tephrostratigraphy assures the worldwide correlation potential of the Mediterranean record.