The De Nadale Cave (Zovencedo, Berici Hills, northeastern Italy): A small-mammal fauna from near the onset of Marine Isotope Stage 4 and its palaeoclimatic implications

Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS 4; ca. 71-57 ka) is a stage of short duration that is not well documented in continental contexts and is characterized mainly by minimum summer insolation, producing a maximum extension of the polar ice caps together with a lowering of the sea level in the Northern Hemisphere. The De Nadale Cave, located at an altitude of 130 m a.s.l. in the Berici Hills in northeastern Italy, is a site with a single archaeological layer (Unit 7) dating to MIS 4. In this paper we present for the first time a palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of this layer based on the small-mammal (insectivore, bat and rodent) assemblages. Coupled with the absolute dating as well as previous large-mammal studies and the few pollen studies in terrestrial sequences for this time-span in Italy and the sea cores of the Mediterranean basin, the results enable us clearly to identify a cold climatic period with a landscape dominated by open woodland formations and open-dry habitats, probably related with the beginning of MIS 4.