Correlation of English and German Middle Pleistocene fluvial sequences based on mammalian biostratigraphy

Abstract

In this paper interglacial mammalian assemblages from key Middle Pleistocene fluvial sites in Germany are compared to Mammal Assemblage-Zones (MAZs) recently established in the post-Anglian/Elsterian sequence of the Lower Thames, UK. It is believed that four separate interglacials are represented by the Lower Thames MAZs, correlated with oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 11, 9, 7 and substage 5e (although the last of these is Late Pleistocene). Nowhere in Germany can a full sequence of these interglacials be identified from mammalian evidence in a single terrace staircase, as is the case in the Lower Thames, although further research on the Wipper terraces at Bilzingsleben may identify such a sequence. It is also possible that the sequence of overlapping fluvial channels in the lignite mine at Schoningen will eventually produce a comparable mammalian story. Excellent correspondence has been recognized between the mammalian assemblages at Steinheim an der Murr and Bilzingsleben II and the Swanscombe MAZ from the Thames. These three sites are attributed to the Hoxnian/Holsteinian interglacial and are thought to correlate with OIS 11. Close comparison can also be made between the mammalian sequence from the celebrated travertine locality at Weimar-Ehringsdorf and two separate MAZs from Aveley, in the Thames, attributed to separate substages of OIS 7. An equivalent to the Purfleet MAZ of the Thames, which is believed to correlate with OIS 9, has yet to be identified in Germany.

Climatically controlled river terrace staircases: A worldwide Quaternary phenomenon

“…In the latter area the recognition of long and complex Quaternary stratigraphies based on loess/soil sequences overlying river terrace deposits, in what was then Czechoslovakia (Kukla, 1975(Kukla, , 1977(Kukla, , 1978, paved the way for modern schemes in which terrestrial records are correlated with that from the deep oceans. IGCP 449 has documented important terrace sequences in the River Vltava, Czech Republic (Tyráček et al, 2004), and the Wipper and Ilm, central Germany (Mania, 1995;Schreve and Bridgland, 2002;Bridgland et al, 2004b). In the German examples there is excellent preservation of interglacial evidence within subaerial travertines that typically overlie cold-climate fluvial sediments, suggesting that here, as in the Somme, downcutting has occurred following interglacials.…”

Patterns of diet and body mass of large ungulates from the Pleistocene of Western Europe, and their relation to vegetation

“…Middle and Late Pleistocene localities from Britain and Germany were chosen for this study because terrestrial Pleistocene deposits in these regions are extensive and stratigraphically well understood (e.g., Schreve and Bridgland, 2002), and there are many localities with both mammal and pollen records. The ungulate fossil material was studied by Juha Saarinen in the collections of the Natural History Museum of London (NHML), Torquay Museum (TM), the Sedgwick Museum of Geology, Cambridge (SMC), University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge (UMZC), Ipswich Museum (IM), British Geological Survey at Keyworth (BGS), Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart (SMNS), Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Karlsruhe (KMNS) and the Quaternary Palaeontology Research Station of the Senckenberg institute, Weimar (IQP).…”

Quaternary fluvial archives and landscape evolution: a global synthesis

“…Indeed, as terraces occur with seemingly equal frequency in central continental areas, where sea-level control is improbable, mechanisms that can explain their formation in such areas are also likely to apply in coastal regions. Evidence that this is the case comes from the recognition that the aggradational braided-river gravels forming the bulk of most terrace Rose and Allen, 1977;Green and McGregor, 1980;Gibbard, 1985;Vandenberghe, 1995Vandenberghe, , 2002Macklin et al, 2002; 'Olier, 1975;Bridgland, 1994Bridgland, , 2002D'Olier 1989, 1995). During warmer (interglacial) episodes, rivers have typically adopted single-channel regimes, commensurate with incision, which is perhaps why former received wisdom held that incision had taken place during interglacials (Zeuner, 1945;cf.…”

“…1Ai). Other excellent examples of such archives occur in France (Pastre, 2004;Antoine et al, 2007;Cordier et al, 2005Cordier et al, , 2006Cordier et al, , 2012, Germany (Mania, 1995;Bibus and Wesler, 1995;Schreve and Bridgland, 2002;Bridgland et al, 2004b) and the Netherlands (Van den Berg and van Hoof, 2001;. Even better records are known from the rivers flowing southwards to the Black Sea through Ukraine, which have highly informative sequences, dated with reference to a well-established biostratigraphical and magnetostratigraphical framework, that extend back to the Miocene (Matoshko et al, 2002(Matoshko et al, , 2004Fig.…”