Correlation of English and German Middle Pleistocene fluvial sequences based on mammalian biostratigraphy

Abstract

In this paper interglacial mammalian assemblages from key Middle Pleistocene fluvial sites in Germany are compared to Mammal Assemblage-Zones (MAZs) recently established in the post-Anglian/Elsterian sequence of the Lower Thames, U.K. It is believed that four separate interglacials are represented by the Lower Thames MAZs, correlated with oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 11, 9, 7 and substage 5e (although the last of these is Late Pleistocene). Nowhere in Germany can a full sequence of these interglacials be identified from mammalian evidence in a single terrace staircase, as is the case in the Lower Thames, although further research on the Wipper terraces at Bilzingsleben may identify such a sequence. It is also possible that the sequence of overlapping fluvial channels in the lignite mine at Schöningen will eventually produce a comparable mammalian story. Excellent correspondence has been recognized between the mammalian assemblages at Steinheim an der Murr and Bilzingsleben II and the Swanscombe MAZ from the Thames. These three sites are attributed to the Hoxnian/Holsteinian interglacial and are thought to correlate with OIS 11. Close comparison can also be made between the mammalian sequence from the celebrated travertine locality at Weimar-Ehringsdorf and two separate MAZs from Aveley, in the Thames, attributed to separate substages of OIS 7. An equivalent to the Purfleet MAZ of the Thames, which is believed to correlate with OIS 9, has yet to be identified in Germany.