Distinguishing between the late Middle Pleistocene interglacials of the British Isles: A multivariate approach to horse biostratigraphy

Abstract

Over the last decades, it has proven difficult to correlate late Middle Pleistocene terrestrial sites with the marine oxygen isotope record and with other terrestrial sites. For the British Isles, a biostratigraphic framework has been developed for the late Middle Pleistocene, incorporating geological, faunal and floral evidence. Multivariate analyses of British late Middle Pleistocene caballoid horse metapodials and first phalanges group the samples in accordance with the dates previously assigned to them, corroborating the existing biostratigraphic scheme. Principal components analysis shows that the main sources of variation in these skeletal elements are differences in size, slenderness and adaptations to the substrate. Discriminant function analysis provides a reliable method for identifying temporal affinities of horse remains. This analysis of the British material can be instrumental in the development of a better biostratigraphy for late Middle Pleistocene continental European sites.