Calibration of the late Pliocene-early Pleistocene transition in the continental beds of the Guadix-Baza basin (southeastern Spain)

Abstract

In this paper a survey of the correlation between magnetic polarity and the mammalian succession in the Plio-Pleistocene sequence of the Guadix-Baza basin is presented. In this basin a complete continental sequence from the early Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene is present, allowing the correlation of mammalian biozones with the geomagnetic polarity scale. Two sections of the Baza sector of the basin have been analyzed in order to calibrate the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition: the Galera (middle Pliocene to early Pleistocene) and the Orce (late Pliocene to early Pleistocene). It is concluded that the boundary between the MN 15 (late Ruscinian) and the MN 16 (early Villanyian) is placed between the 2An. 3n chron and the 2An. In subchron. The late Villanyian (MN 17) extends up to the upper part of chron 2r. 1r. The entry of the Pleistocene marker Allophaiomys pliocaenicus can be placed within subchron 2n (Olduvai).