Fossil macaques (Cercopithecidae, Primates) from the Middle Pleistocene of the Megalopolis basin (Greece) with description of a new specimen from Kyparissia 4

Abstract

Recent fieldwork in the Megalopolis Basin (Greece) has mainly focused on two Middle Pleistocene sites, Marathousa 1 and Kyparissia 4, both of which yielded rich faunal assemblages (e.g., ostracods, molluscs, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) in stratigraphic and spatial association with Lower Palaeolithic lithic artefacts, thus documenting hominin presence in the region (Harvati et al., 2018 and articles therein; Karkanas et al., this volume). Marathousa 1 (MAR-1), located in the Marathousa mine, was discovered during targeted fieldwork in 2013 and systematically excavated from 2014 to 2019 by a team from the University of Tübingen Paleoanthropology group and the Ephorate of Paleoanthropology–Speleology (see Harvati et al., 2018 and articles therein). MAR-1 is dated to ca. 450 ka and is correlated to the Marine Isotope Stage 12 (Panagopoulou et al., 2018 and references therein). The site’s large mammal faunal assemblage includes (Konidaris et al., 2018): Castor fiber (beaver), Mustela sp. (weasel), Lutra simplicidens (otter), Felis sp. (wildcat), Vulpes sp. (fox), Canis sp. (medium-sized canid), Palaeoloxodon antiquus (straight-tusked elephant), Hippopotamus antiquus (hippopotamus), Bison sp. (bison), Dama sp. (fallow deer) and Cervus elaphus (red deer). Of particular interest are the skeletal remains of at least two elephant individuals, some of which preserve evidence of anthropogenic modifications.