Rediscovering Lutra lutra from Grotta Romanelli (southern Italy) in the framework of the puzzling evolutionary history of Eurasian otter

Abstract

A river otter hemimandible has been rediscovered during the revision of the historical collections of G.A. Blanc from Grotta Romanelli, complementing the ongoing multidisciplinary research fieldwork on the site. The specimen, recovered from the level G (“terre rosse”; early Late Pleistocene or late Middle Pleistocene), is here assigned to Lutra lutra. Indeed, morphological and morphometric comparisons with other Quaternary Lutrinae fossils from Europe allow to exclude an attribution to the relatively widespread and older Lutra simplicidens, characterized by distinctive carnassial proportions. Differences with Cyrnaonyx antiqua, which possessed a more robust, shellfish-feeding dentition, support the view of a successful niche repartition between the two species during the late Middle to Late Pleistocene of Europe. The occurrence of Lutra lutra from the “terre rosse” of Grotta Romanelli suggests deep modifications of the landscapes due to the ecological adaptation of the taxon, and indicates that the Eurasian otter spread into Europe at the Middle–Late Pleistocene transition.

Stratigraphic reassessment of Grotta Romanelli sheds light on Middle-Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments and human settling in the Mediterranean

“…The chronological attribution of ISU3 to the early Late Pleistocene supports their European extinction after MIS 5. The complete hemimandible of Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758) found during Blanc’s excavations 23 , 24 was recently described by Mecozzi et al 39 confirming its taxonomic attribution. Since the European record of this carnivoran is quite scarce and mainly known from Holocene deposits 64 , its presence within ISU3 represents one of the earliest evidences of L. lutra in Europe.…”

“…Due to the “colluvial” nature of the sediments inherited by the erosion of Interglacial leached soils ISU3 can be correlated to the early phases of climate deterioration that followed the Last Interglacial (i.e., MISs 5d-b). Fossils from ISU3 were recently debated and rhino remainss were attributed to Stephanorhinus hemitoechus 42 , canid specimens ascribed to Canis lupus 34 and otter material to Lutra lutra 39 . ISU3 and ISU4 are in turn buried by ISU5, the so-called “Terre Brune '' (due to their brownish colours) of Blanc 23 (Fig.…”

“…The archaeological and palaeontological findings from Grotta Romanelli, hosted in museums and institutions across Italy, have been the subject of several studies, both confirming 29 , 30 or questioning 31 , 34 , 35 the chrono-stratigraphic setting proposed by Blanc 23 . Recently, new excavations led to a reassessment of the stratigraphy of the uppermost part of the cave infilling 36 and a partial revision of some of the palaeontological remains 33 , 37 – 39 . A critical review of the Last Interglacial MLPs and Sea Level Points Indicators (SLIPs in 20) along the stable coasts of the Mediterranean Sea 11 , indicated the highest Grotta Romanelli’s tidal notch (tn) as older than MIS 5e.…”

The pollen record from Grotta Romanelli (Apulia, Italy): New insight for the Late Pleistocene Mediterranean vegetation and plant use

“…Stephanorhinus hemitoechus (Falconer, 1868) by Pandolfi et al (2017). Recently, the occurrence of Lutra lutra from Terre rosse was also confirmed by Mecozzi et al (2021) (Cassoli and Tagliacozzo, 1997). The species identified were prevalently adapted to cold-temperate climates (75% of the remains), referable to steppe and grassland environments.…”

Birds and bovids: new parietal engravings at the Romanelli Cave, Apulia

“…Within the terre brune layers, the palaeontological record is characterised by temperate species, mainly from steppe and grassland environments, along with North Atlantic and subarctic marine species, such as great auk (Pinguinus impennis) (see Sardella et al 2018;Mecozzi et al 2021). The lithic material totalled approximately 10 000 artefacts (with some 5800 pieces in Layer C), including small end scrapers, burins, finely retouched points on a blade, a bladelet or flake and many backed and truncated lithics (Sardella et al 2019).…”