Quaternary paleontological records in Sardinia caves

Within the Mediterranean realm, Sardinia is one of the most important sites for paleontological studies, with an international scientific value. The fossiliferous heritage of this island was early recognised since the first zooarcheological investigations. This paleobiodiversity is related to its geological history that records over 500 million years of sedimentary successions. Separated from Southern Europe in the Tertiary, its insularity has determined significant evolutionary changes of its fauna with respect to the mainland. For this reason, Quaternary fossils in Sardinia are characterised by a few taxa with an high endemic faunistic content. Many of these paleontological archives have been preserved in cave deposits. In fact, about 10% of the Sardinia area is composed of karst rocks (most of which are limestones, dolostones, and small spots with marbles outcrops) and over 4,500 caves have been explored. The main morphological feature of these karst systems is an horizontal arrangement of its underground cave passages that makes possible to preserve relatively thick sedimentary deposits. As poorly affected by recent tectonic deformation and erosive processes, Sardinian caves are excellent continental archives of Past Global Changes and document an extremely interesting evidence of Quaternary fauna records. Several paleontological studies have been addressed to the description of these cave faunistic remains and to establish their evolution over time. In this study an extensive literature review of the taphonomic researches on Quaternary fossil vertebrates in Sardinia caves is proposed, focusing on their chronological constrain with the aim of a better characterisation of the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental conditions of Western Mediterranean climate during the Quaternary.