THK PLIOCENE SKI; IKS 605 



Sii-ilian Alluvial pebbly sands witli Elephas merulionalis. 

 Astian Yellow sands with Must<H/<m arvcrnensis. 

 P1 /Sands and marls with Potamides Batteroti (160 feet). 



111 \ Marls witli ,V</.v.sv( semistriata, Area diluvii, etc. (500 feet). 

 ., . ( Murls of Bolli-iie, with Cunyeria simplex and Melanin 

 '" \ Miithnrinii, lying unconformably on the Miocene (100 feet). 



3. Itulij 



When the Pliocene is followed eastward into Ligurin, the 

 marine deposits are still thicker, presenting a series of marls and 

 limestones over 600 feet thick, and representing the Pontian, 

 Placentian, and Astian, and abounding in fossils. These beds an- 

 overlain by 300 feet of yellow sands with few fossils, but tlu-e 

 also are of Astian age, and no marine deposits of Sicilian age 

 occur in Northern Italy ; near Asti, however, and other places there 

 are fluviatile sands and gravels containing bones of Elephas meridi- 

 intiili* and other Upper Pliocene species. 



Pliocene deposits occupy large tracts on both sides of the 

 Apennines and are well displayed in and near Rome. They 

 cover about half the island of Sicily, and are largely developed in 

 Calabria. In these southern areas they are over 2000 feet thick 

 and rise to a height of 4000 feet above the sea, consisting almost 

 entirely of marine deposits, the succession being as follows: 



q. .,. ("Calcareous sands of Palermo with many fossils, including 

 inn f* 11 ]-' i northern species, such as Buctinum yra-nlandwum, Jlyu 



I truncata, and Cyprina islaiidica. 



. /Yellow sands with Pecten opercularis, P. varius, Pectunculus 



p n ' J pilosus, and other shells. 



I Limestone and calcareous sand with Amphisteyum. 

 pl .. I Limestones with Aporrhais pespelicani and Pecten jacobcvus. 



orin ft 1 Blue marls with jN " rts<Srt 'emistriata. 



(Sands with Bryozoa and Brachiopods (Terebratuliiui). 

 Slessinian, f Foraminiferal marls and limestones with Ostrca cochlear 

 300 feet i. and Clypeaster pliocenicus. 



In the Val d'Arno there is an extensive lacustrine deposit 

 over 700 feet thick, the lower part including beds of lignite with 

 plant-remains and the bones of a tapir ; the upper part yielding 

 the bones of many mammalia of Upper Pliocene age, such as 

 Elephas meridionalis, Rhinoceros etruscus, Equus stenonis, with 

 antelopes, deer, a bear (Ursus etruscus), an ape (Macacus florentinus], 

 and three species of Machcerodus (sabre-toothed tigers). 24 



4. Austria and the Balkans 



Pontian. In Austria the Sarmatian Clays are overlain by 

 the Congeria Beds or Pontian stage, consisting of sandy marls and 



