The large horse from Fontana Ranuccio (Anagni Basin, central Italy)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates the fossil horse remains from the archaeo-palaeontological layer of the Middle Pleistocene locality of Fontana Ranuccio (Central Italy) (400 ka; MIS 11), which has been long considered a reference site for the Italian biochronology from which the Fontana Ranuccio Faunal Unit has been established in the 1990s. Despite the archaeo-palaeontological importance of this locality, the material belonging to equids has never been formally described. The Fontana Ranuccio sample consists of 28 remains, in particular 25 isolated premolars and molars at different wear stages, an incomplete scapula, a complete talus and a proximal portion of a third metatarsus which belong to a large caballine horse, historically ascribed to Equus cf. E. mosbachensis. The large size and the persistence of some primitive – stenonoid sensu lato – characters in the Fontana Ranuccio teeth, together with clear advanced (caballine) morphological traits support their attribution to the polymorph group of Equus mosbachensis. The results of the revision of the Fontana Ranuccio material and the comparison with data from selected European localities are consistent with the hypothesis that the morphological and dimensional differences observed in Middle Pleistocene horses depend on the presence of ecomorphotypes and the intrinsic intra-population variability that characterises most equid species.