SUBDIVISION OF PLEISTOCENE TIME 
IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 
By NORMAN B. TINDALE, B. SC., ETHNOLOGIST, S. A. MUSEUM 
“The only sound approach to a study [of the early tools of man] is through 
those natural sciences which are concerned with the chronology of the Pleistocene.” 
Movius (1944). 
Summary 
This paper brings together new evidence for, and recent work on, the subdivision of 
Pleistocene time, as it applies to South Australia. It is intended as a preliminary to a 
study of the advent of man on this continent; only geological information is made use 
of in establishing the subdivisions. 
Using index fossils Haug (1911) defined the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, with 
some precision, as that indicated by the appearance of the mammalian genera Elephas, 
Equus and Bos, the so-called Villafranchian fauna. Determined at first only for 
Europe this dividing line is coming to be accepted by other workers as applying 
equally well to Asia. However, such a correlation cannot be transferred directly to the 
Australian Region, which lies outside areas which were accessible to the migrations 
of the later mammals. 
