Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 65, núm. 2, 2013, p. 335-353 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2013v65n2a15

The bathyal decapod crustacean community from the Poggio i Sodi quarries (Siena Basin, Tuscany, Italy)

Angela Baldanza¹, Roberto Bizzarri¹, Federico Famiani², Alessandro Garassino^3,*, Matúš Hyžný⁴, Giovanni Pasini⁵

¹ Earth Science Department, Università di Perugia, Piazza Università 1, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
² School of Science and Technology, Geology Division, Università di Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, 62032 Camerino, Italy.
³ Natural History Museum, Paleontology Department, Corso Venezia 55, 20121 Milan, Italy.
⁴ Department of Geology and Paleontology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina G1, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵ Via Alessandro Volta 16, 22070 Appiano Gentile (Como), Italy.

^* This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

A rich decapod fauna from the Early Pleistocene (late Gelasian-early Calabrian) of Poggio i Sodi quarries (Siena, Tuscany, central Italy) is here reported. Integrated biostratigraphical, sedimentological and paleoecological analyses have been carried out, and some paleoenvironmental inferences are also proposed. The studied decapod community is herein assigned to the upper bathyal; several paleoenvironmental factors (cool water conditions at the sea floor, clay soft bottom, nutrients, very low environmental energy and sedimentation rate) influenced and promoted the crustacean settlement.

Keywords: Crustacea, Decapoda, Astacidea, Axiidea, Anomura, Brachyura, Early Pleistocene, Italy.