Early Pleistocene Age Research Articles

Mauer – the type site of Homo heidelbergensis: palaeoenvironment and age

The mandible of Homo heidelbergensis was found 1907 in the sand pit Grafenrain at Mauer in coarse fluvial sands 24 m below the surface, deposited in a former course of the Neckar River. These ‘Mauer sands’ are overlain by a series of glacial-climate loess deposits with intercalated interglacial palaeosols, which can be correlated with Quaternary climate history, thus indicating an early Middle Pleistocene age for H. heidelbergensis. The ‘Mauer sands’ are famous for their rather rich mammal fauna, which clearly indicates interglacial climate conditions. The faunal evidence – in particular the micromammals – place the ‘Mauer sands’ into MIS 15 or MIS 13 although most stratigraphic arguments favour correlation to MIS 15 and therefore to an age of ca 600 ka.

Fluvial stacking due to plate collision and uplift during the Early Pleistocene in Cyprus

AbstractSouthern Cyprus is situated within a mosaic terrane that has been fragmented between the northward drifting African and Arabian plates and the Eurasian plate. Enormous uplift of the earth mantle in the Tróodos Mountains is explained by two models. The subduction model explains subduction along the Cyprean arc to be the driving force for uplift whereas after the restraining bend model westward squeezing of Cyprus along strike-slip faulting is responsible for the enormous uplift at restraining bends. Since its emergence as an island in early Miocene times, landscape formation on Cyprus has been strongly controlled by this uplift. Until the Plio-Pleistocene, a strait belt separated the southern unroofed ophiolitic core region-the Tróodos Mountains-from the folded Kyrenia range to the north. This former sea basin, nowadays the Mesaoría Basin, is linked with the Tróodos Mountains by a dissected glacis with a thick cover of river deposits. The highest and oldest river deposits (Apalós Formation) were studied in the Vlokkariá hill southwest of Lefkosía. The 45.5 m thick Apalós Formation of Early Pleistocene age exhibits 24 sedimentary units (Fluviatile Series). Their magnetostratigraphical characters align with the Matuyama chron including the Olduvai and Jaramillo subchrons thus comprising about 1.15 Ma within the Early Pleistocene. This fluvial stack indicates a very flat and deeply lying river environment flowing from a slowly uplifting Tróodos hinterland. It happened during the end of Early Pleistocene when the enhanced Tróodos uplift started the dissection of the stacked river plain.

Picea+ Tsuga pollen record as a mirror of oxygen isotope signal? An insight into the Italian long pollen series from Pliocene to Early Pleistocene

Chronostratigraphic control is of substantial importance for palynological studies carried out both on continental and marine sequences. Long pollen records provide an opportunity to examine the response of the vegetation to glacial/interglacial climate changes, and the integration of pollen data with different datasets (biostratigraphic – foraminifers and nanoplankton, δ 18O and magnetostratigraphic data) results in a reliable chronostratigraphic control. Unfortunately, long pollen records with multi-datasets are uncommon, and lack of such integration could generate misinterpretations in chronostratigraphic assignment of the sedimentary successions in which only pollen data are available. To specify the chronostratigraphic placement of sedimentary successions controlled by palynological data solely, an alternative approach is proposed in this paper. The procedure is very simple and practical, being based on the combination of Picea and Tsuga pollen data resulting in a new pollen profile to be visually compared to δ 18O signals from reference sites. Picea and Tsuga are two of the main conifer forest taxa in Italian sedimentary successions of Pliocene to Early Pleistocene age, and their pollen-types can be unambiguously identified at the microscope. Moreover, Picea and Tsuga are elements of peculiar ecological demands, being very responsive to the variations of temperature ( Picea) and precipitation ( Tsuga). As temperature and precipitation are also the main climatic parameters which drive the expansion and retreat of ice-caps, by comparing the profile of the stacked Picea+ Tsuga pollen curve to δ 18O curves from reference sites, a visual resemblance between each other, if present, could be used for chronostratigraphic implications. In order to test and discuss the validity of this approach, the Italian long pollen series of Pliocene–Early Pleistocene age (with Picea and Tsuga concurrently present) are considered in this study.

Newly discovered fossil- and artifact-bearing deposits, uranium-series ages, and Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa

We report on new research at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, that provides evidence of two previously unrealized artifact- and fossil-bearing deposits. These deposits underlie a speleothem dated by the uranium-thorium disequilibrium technique to 110,000 ± 1,980 years old, the first tightly constrained, geochronological date available for the site. Recovered fauna from the two underlying deposits—including, prominently, the dental remains of Paranthropus ( Australopithecus) robustus from the uppermost layer (Talus Cone Deposit)—indicate a significantly older, late Pliocene or early Pleistocene age for these units. The lowest unit (LB East Extension) is inferred to be an eastward extension of the well-known Lower Bank of Member 1, the earliest surviving infill represented at the site. The date acquired from the speleothem also sets the maximum age of a rich Middle Stone Age lithic assemblage.

Small mammals from the early Pleistocene of the Granada Basin, southern Spain

The Pliocene and Pleistocene continental sedimentary records of the western sector of the Granada Basin, southern Spain, consist of alternating fluvial and lacustrine/palustrine sediments. Two Quaternary sections from this sector have been sampled: Huétor Tájar and Tojaire. They have yielded remains of rodents, insectivores and lagomorphs. The presence in the Huétor Tájar and Tojaire sections of Mimomys, Apodemus atavus, Castillomys rivas and two different species of Allophaiomys, indicates an Early Pleistocene age. These deposits, which are related to a fluvio-lacustrine system, can be differentiated from an older (Pliocene) braided fluvial system. Their dating has important repercussions on the paleogeographic reconstruction of the basin. The conditions inferred from the ecological preferences of the small mammal associations are wet and cold. These associations suggest a predominance of open herbaceous habitats, followed by forested habitats; semiaquatic habitats are the least represented.

Neogene Mollusca from the Yunokogawa Formation in the Shimokita Peninsula, Northeast Japan

A “Miocene” molluscan fauna of the Yunokogawa Formation is reexamined taxonomically and its paleobiogeographic implications are discussed. The fauna is composed of three species of Gastropoda and 18 species of Bivalvia. The new data indicate that the Yunokogawa molluscan fauna is not of Miocene age, but is referable to the Omma-Manganji Fauna of Pliocene—Early Pleistocene age. No warm-water species are included in the Yunokogawa molluscan fauna. This is probably because the fauna is older than ca. 3.5 Ma or because the influence of warm-water (the Paleo-Tsushima Current) in the Paleo-Tsugaru Strait was much weaker than today. The following taxa are described taxonomically: Fusitriton aff. oregonensis (Redfield), Anadara (Anadara) amicula amicula (Yokoyama), Chlamys (Leochlamys) foeda (Yokoyama), Thracia (Homoeodesma) kakumana (Yokoyama), Protocallithaca Nomura, 1937, and Protothaca (Protocallithaca) adamsii (Reeve).

An Early Pleistocene interglacial record from an intermontane basin of central Italy (Scoppito, L'Aquila)

Interdisciplinary investigations in the Early Pleistocene site of Madonna della Strada, near Scoppito (L'Aquila, central Italy) are presented, complementing the information on large mammal remains recovered in the 1950s ( Mammuthus meridionalis, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, suid and small deer). New fragmentary remains of an old rhinoceros individual are examined and discussed. Pollen analysis documents an interglacial forest phase with considerable frequencies of taxa presently extinct in the Italian peninsula ( Tsuga, Carya, Pterocarya, and Zelkova), starting with an expansion of conifers, progressively replaced by a mixed deciduous forest, followed by an increase of mediterranean vegetation. The abundance of extinct elements suggests an Early Pleistocene age older than the Jaramillo Subchron (1.07 Ma). The scarcity of Picea and Cedrus and the absence of Liquidambar suggest that the record should be younger than MIS 40 (approx. 1.3 Ma). This chronological setting indicates that Hippopotamus antiquus was already present in Italy before the Jaramillo palaeomagnetic inversion.

Stratigraphy of the Fort Selkirk Volcanogenic Complex in central Yukon and its paleoclimatic significance: Ar/Ar and paleomagnetic data

Brunhes, Matuyama, Kaena, and Mammoth age basaltic lava flows (Tertiary–Quaternary Selkirk Volcanics) were sampled in west-central Yukon. The mean characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) direction of the flows sampled in this and previous studies has a declination of 348.7° and an inclination of 70.8° (n = 42, k = 99.6, α95 = 2.2°) (all on lower hemisphere). The time range represented in this study (ca. 3.25 to ca. 0.004 Ma) is great enough to have confidently averaged secular variation. Sediment associated with the basalt has a mean declination of 7.6° and inclination of 78.8° (n = 5, k = 5.6, α95 = 35.7°). A new 40Ar–39Ar date on the reversely magnetized basal basalts at Ne Ch’e Ddhäwa places the eruption in the Mammoth subchron of the Gauss Normal Chron. The newly dated basal basalt at Ne Ch’e Ddhäwa precedes the initial continental glaciation in Yukon and is older than the Fort Selkirk vent (Lower Mushroom), which was previously thought to be the oldest eruption at Fort Selkirk Volcanic Complex (FSVC). This basal flow at Mushroom is dated at 1.82 ± 0.03 Ma and the uppermost flow is reproducibly dated at 1.36 ± 0.04 Ma. Till on the flanks of a subglacial volcanic mound called Ne Ch’e Ddhäwa (informal) is older than previously thought; its reverse magnetization indicates an Early Pleistocene age rather than the Reid glaciation, which falls during the Brunhes Normal Chron. The paleomagnetism of Tertiary–Quaternary Selkirk Volcanics outcrops outside the FSVC was studied for the first time. The ChRM direction of basalt at the northern edge of the northern Cordillera volcanic province agrees with FSVC directions, suggesting that this flow reflects the same period of volcanism. This suggests that an Eocene K–Ar date, previously thought to be unreliable, may well be correct.

Ordovician sponges (Porifera) and other silicifications from Baltica in Neogene and Pleistocene fluvial deposits of the Netherlands and northern Germany

Fluvial deposits of Miocene to Early Pleistocene age in Germany and the Netherlands were laid down in the delta of the Eridanos River System, but the exact provenance of this material continues to be a subject of discussion. The aim of the present study is twofold. Firstly, a comparison of Ordovician sponges in these deposits with those from northern Estonia and the St Petersburg region (Russia) demonstrates that these erratics originated from the drainage area of the Pra Neva, a tributary of the Eridanos. Secondly, the importance of Late Ordovician silicified boulders, which yield forms of preservation that are unknown in comparable fossils, preserved in situ, is outlined. Some recommendations for future studies are made.

The earliest immigration of woolly rhinoceros ( Coelodonta tologoijensis, Rhinocerotidae, Mammalia) into Europe and its adaptive evolution in Palaearctic cold stage mammal faunas

The cold adapted larger mammal faunas of Pleistocene Eurasia (the so-called Mammuthus– Coelodonta faunas) were mainly composed of autochthonous Palaearctic elements. Whereas the history of the immigration and evolution of European woolly mammoths has been exhaustively studied, comparable investigations for woolly rhinoceroses are lacking. Referring to the remains of European and Asian Coelodonta in general and the first skull to be found of a European woolly rhinoceros of early Middle Pleistocene age (from Bad Frankenhausen, Germany) in particular, the occurrence, dispersal, morphological evolution and ecological adaptation of early Coelodonta are reviewed. Coelodonta originated around 2.5 Myr BP north of the Himalayan–Tibetan uplift. The genus was restricted in its range to different types of steppe landscapes of continental Asia for more than two million years and it wasn't until MIS 12, when extended phases of low temperature and aridity prevailed in western Eurasia that woolly rhinoceroses comparable to Coelodonta tologoijensis spread westward towards Central Europe for the first time. Coelodonta entered Central and, in several cases, Western Europe during all of the subsequent Middle to Late Pleistocene cold stages. Morphological evolution, in particular, the elongation and narrowing of the head and successively its lower and more inclined posture, the shift of the orbits towards the rear of the skull, and changes in the position and morphology of the tooth row concurrently indicate progressive adaptations to an efficient grazer. During the course of their Plio-/Pleistocene evolution, Coelodonta rhinoceroses changed strikingly from cursorial mixed feeders of central Asian origin to graviportal, highly specialised grazers, inhabiting huge belts of tundra–steppe-like environments during dry and cool to cold periods, and thus becoming the only rhinocerotid to join the Eurasian mammoth faunas. The Bad Frankenhausen Coelodonta record dates the initial formation of a pan-Eurasian Mammuthus– Coelodonta faunal complex to about 460 kyr BP.

Building a tephrostratigraphic framework for the Paleolithic of Central Anatolia, Turkey

The Central Anatolian Volcanic Province (CAVP) in Turkey preserves widespread deposits of Quaternary tephra, presently associated with a small but growing number of Paleolithic archaeological sites. We use multivariate analyses of the abundances of a suite of nine major and minor element oxides determined by electron probe microanalysis. From these data, we construct a classificatory model for correlating distal tephra to one of five volcanic edifices or eruptive phases within the CAVP. Application of this model to distal deposits of primary tephra-fall and reworked tuffaceous sediments from the archaeological sites of Körkuyu and Kaletepe Deresi 3 indicates Late to possibly Early Pleistocene ages for the artifact assemblages there, and provides a fundamental tephrostratigraphic framework to examine spatial and temporal variation in hominin behavior comparable to that of other regions, such as eastern Africa.

The comparison of calcaneal radiography with BMD measured by DXA for diagnosis of immobilization osteoporosis in children

Shanshenmiaozui is an open-air fossil site of Early Pleistocene age in Nihewan Basin, China. During 2006–2011, nearly 100 fossil specimens of Mammuthus trogontherii were unearthed, including some series of tarsal, metatarsal and phalange bones of immature individuals, which represent the first discovery of hindfoot bones of immature M. trogontherii. Morphologically, the new tarsals are intermediate between those of Mammuthus meridionalis and Mammuthus primigenius. However, they have some possible differences from those of Palaeoloxodon antiquus: the relatively quadrangled plantar surface of the astragalus; the relatively flat cuboid facet on calcaneum; and the special configuration of the distal facets on ectocuneiform. With reference to the age determination by teeth, the footbone remains can be categorized into three age groups: newborn calf, juvenile, and subadult, approximately corresponding to one month old, 6–7 years old, and 10–20 years old individuals, respectively. The ontogenetic changes of the hindfoot bones can be detected in their size, morphology, compact layer, and epiphyseal fusion. There are possibilities of proximal epiphyses on metatarsals and distal epiphyses on phalanges, which is unusual in other mammals, but reasonable in elephants because of their lengthy growth period.

Late-Pliocene timing of Corinth (Greece) rift-margin fault migration

Geochronological data for timing of Gulf of Corinth rift-margin fault migration is presented from the Megara basin, precursor to the active eastern Corinth rift. Fifteen sanidine separates from a thin tuff near the top of the sedimentary basin fill analysed by laser-fusion give apparent 40Ar– 39Ar ages from 2.78 to 4.53 Ma. A weighted mean age of 2.82 ± 0.06 Ma (at 2 σ error) for the three youngest aliquots (range of mean ages 2.78–2.86 Ma) is regarded as a maximum probable age for ash eruption. Together with magnetostratigraphy results, this age constrains timing of Megara basin abandonment and likely propagation of the active South Alkyonides coastal faults that presently bound the southern rift-margin to the late-Pliocene, ∼ 2.2 Ma. Initiation of the coastal faults caused uplift, fluvial incision and calcrete formation on geomorphic surfaces over the abandoned Megara basin fill. A petrocalcic laminar horizon from a supermature calcrete unconformably capping the fill gives a U–Pb age of 0.77 ± 0.08 Ma, dating a late stage in the history of calcrete development. The new age for initiation of active faulting in the eastern rift yields a low estimate of long-term mean extension along the active South Alkyonides coastal faults of ∼ 0.9–1.4 mm a − 1 , consistent with previous geological data. This rate is less than the 100-year GPS-determined geodetic extension rate of 6 ± 2.7 mm a − 1 measured along a ∼ 23°E meridional array just west of the Alkyonides gulf. It implies either that the geodetic rate declines rapidly over the ∼ 15 km distance into the eastern gulf or that the geodetic rate is unchanged but extra strain is taken up aseismically and/or along antithetic and unrecognised major intrabasinal faults. In the full graben of the central rift displacements are ∼ 3.5 km along the Xylocastro and Antikyra faults; the mean long term extension rate here since 2.2 Ma is ∼ 3.5 mm a − 1 , much less than current geodetic rates of ∼ 10 mm a − 1 . In the western rift, despite a lack of precise chronological data, geodetic and extension rates seem comparable. Overall, a late-Pliocene to early Pleistocene age is likely for initiation of the deep-marine Corinth rift, with no evidence for rift propagation, either eastwards or westwards. More generally, our results constrain timing of strain localisation and vertical axis rigid block rotation over the Aegean–Anatolian plate and demonstrate that intraplate deformation can be accomplished rapidly in response to regional-scale tectonic drivers.

Nannofossil age constraints for the northern KwaZulu-Natal shelf-edge wedge: Implications for continental margin dynamics, South Africa, SW Indian Ocean

Samples collected from the shelf-edge wedge using surface grab samples and the Jago submersible constrain the KwaZulu-Natal shelf-edge wedge to a late Pliocene age on the basis of the absence of Gephyrocapsa oceanica s.l. and Discoaster brouweri, and the presence of Calcidiscus macintyrei. This correlates with proposed Tertiary sea-level curves for southern Africa and indicates relative sea-level fall during the late Pliocene coupled with hinterland uplift. Exposed failure scarps in the upper portions of submarine canyons yield sediment samples of early Pleistocene ages, indicating the uppermost age of deposition of clinoform topsets exposed in the scarp walls. Partially consolidated, interbedded silty and sandy deposits of similar age outcrop in the thalweg of Leven canyon at a depth of 150 m. These sediments provide an upper age limit of the shelf-edge wedge of early Pleistocene, giving a sedimentation rate of this wedge of 162–309 m/Ma. The distribution of widespread basal-most Pleistocene sediments on the upper slope indicates that these sediments escaped major reworking during sea-level falls associated with Pleistocene glaciations and remain as relict upper slope veneers. The absence of more recent sediments suggests that this area has been a zone of sediment bypass or starvation since the early Pleistocene. Areas where younger sediments mantle deposits of early Pleistocene ages represent areas of offshore bedload parting, re-distributing younger Holocene sediment offshore and downslope.

Active tectonics of the southeastern Upper Rhine Graben, Freiburg area (Germany)

The Upper Rhine Graben has two Plio-Quaternary depocentres usually interpreted as resulting from tectonic reactivation. The southern basin, near Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), contains up to 250 m of sediments. Beneath the younger alluvial deposits related to the current drainage system, a former river network deeply entrenched in the substratum reveals a very low regional base level of early Pleistocene age. The offset of channels at faults allows us to infer a Pleistocene reactivation of the syn-rift fault pattern and the estimation of slip rates. Maximum vertical movements along the faults have not exceeded 0.1 mm/yr since the middle Pleistocene. Current activity is concentrated along the westernmost faults. Morphologic markers indicate late Pleistocene reactivation of the Rhine River fault, and geophysical prospecting suggests a near-surface offset of young sedimentary deposits. The size of the fault segments potentially reactivated suggests that earthquakes with magnitude larger than Mw = 6.3 could be expected in the area with a return interval of about 8000 years. Extrapolated to the duration of the Plio-Pleistocene, the strain rate estimates reveal that the tectonic forcing may account for only one-third to one-half of the whole thickness of the Plio-Pleistocene sediments of the basin fill. Thus other processes must be invoked to understand the growth of the Plio-Pleistocene basin. Especially the piracy of the Rhine River to the north during the early Pleistocene could explain these effects.

Small mammal fauna of Early Pleistocene age from the Xiaochangliang site in the Nihewan Basin, Hebei, northern China

A large amount of sediments was taken from the horizon stratigraphically equivalent to the artifact layer in the Xiaochangliang site, an important archaeological site of Early Pleistocene age. The sediments were washed with fine-mesh screens to collect small mammal remains. The layer is dated as 1.36 Ma by paleomagnetic measurements. Small mammal remains are important for biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental studies, but they have been hardly collected from the site before the present study. A large number of the remains collected by the screen-washing have revealed the characteristics of the small mammal fauna of the site. The fauna is compared with those of the four well-dated localities in the adjacent area. On the basis of the faunal characteristics and comparisons, we discuss the biostratigraphy and faunal turnover in the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene. Furthermore, we reconstruct the paleoenvironment around the site in the Early Pleistocene.

The occurrence of the genus Tanousia Servain (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae) in the Middle Pleistocene Piànico-Sèllere Basin (Bergamo, Northern Italy)

The occurrence of the freshwater genus Tanousia Servain 1881 (Hydrobiidae) in the Middle Pleistocene lacustrine succession of the Piànico-Sèllere Basin (Bergamo, Northern Italy) represents a significant biostratigraphical discovery. The Tanousia were recovered from the basal part of the carbonate varved bed (BVC), in siltysandy slump sediments, and from the lower and middle parts of the La Palazzina Member (MLP) of the Piànico formation. The BVC unit, in which a dated tephra layer occurs, accumulated during an interglacial phase, as shown by pollen analyses. The MLP Tanousia-bearing layers have been laid down during cool–temperate climate oscillation. The Piànico population of Tanousia displays great morphological variability but is similar to T. runtoniana (Sandberger, 1880), T. stenostoma (Nordmann, 1901) and T. cf. T. stenostoma (Nordmann, 1901), from the Bavelian and Cromerian interglacial deposits of late Early and early Middle Pleistocene age in Northern Europe. As for these species, the Tanousia population from Piànico appears to indicate fluvial conditions under a fully temperate climate.

Chemical weathering intensity of the Late Cenozoic “Red Clay” deposits in the Carpathian Basin

INTRODUCTIONVery little work had been previously done on thistopic in Hungary. In the past decade, little attention hasbeen paid to the red clay in the Carpathian Basin. Dif-ferent views on the formation, properties, and distribu-tion of red clays have been published by severalauthors. Many geologists draw parallels between redclays and bauxites [1–3]. Complex investigationsincluding geology, geomorphology, mineralogy, andgeochemistry were carried out by only a few authorslike Schweitzer and Szo r [4] and Kovacs [5].The most significant progress made on the red clayresearch worldwide is that sedimentology, geochemis-try, geomorphology, and the field survey all demon-strate a wind-blown origin for the red clay [6–9], likethe overlying Pleistocene and Holocene loess. Further-more chemical weathering was studied using geochem-istry [10–13].Important key formations in the Late Cenozoicstratigraphy are the red (silty) clays in the CarpathianBasin. Litho-, bio-, chemo-, and magnetostratigraphicdata show that they were formed in different periods [4,5]. The youngest red paleosol (or reddish clay) is ofEarly Pleistocene age. The older one (red clay) wasformed in the Early and Middle Pliocene [4, 5, 14, 15].This paper deals with the geochemical analysis ofthe red clay formation in the Carpathian Basin and eval-uates chemical weathering intensities.MATERIALS AND METHODSThe investigated sections selected for this study arelocated mainly on the foothills of Hungarian mountains(Fig. 1). These sections are of Pliocene and Early Pleis-tocene age [4, 5, 14, 15]. It consists mainly of threetypes of sediments from upper to the lower: Quaternaryloess–paleosol sequence, Pliocene red clay sequence,and sand or sandy sediments (Fig. 2). Geochemicalanalyses were carried out on 50 samples from 15 redclay sequences from the northern, the southern, and thewestern part of Hungary (Fig. 1). All samples were

Melanopsis from Al-Qarn, Jordan Valley (Gastropoda: Cerithioidea)

Fossil species of Melanopsis from a freshwater formation in the Jordan Valley (near A1-Qarn) were inves- tigated and the deposits containing these species are formally described as A1-Qarn Formation. Four species were found: Melanopsis buccinoidea OLIVIER, M. tchernovi HEELER 8~; SIVAN, M. costata OLIVIER and M. aaronsohni BLANCKENHORN. Melanopsis costata was represented by two groups, "stepped" and "non-stepped", the latter dif- fering in its lower figurativity index. Intermediates were found between M. buccinoidea and M. tchernovi; they may be hybrids. The Melanopsis assemblage bridges the faunal gap, in the Jordan Valley, between the 2 Ma lake of 'Erq el Ahmar on the one hand and the 0.8-1.7 Ma lake of 'Ubeidiya on the other. This suggests an early Pleistocene age of about 1.8 million years for the A1-Qarn Formation.

Characteristics for the recognition of Pliocene and early Pleistocene marker tephras in central Japan

Abstarct Numerous widespread tephra layers of late Pleistocene and Holocene age have been known since the early 1970s and greatly contribute to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the Japan islands and adjacent seas. However, the mapping of older tephra deposits has developed more slowly. Recent progress in describing many tephras occurring in the Pliocene and early Pleistocene uplifted marine and terrestrial deposits has resulted both from developments in the characterization of their component phases, their radiometric and geomagnetic dating and from an enhanced knowledge of their distribution. This study has constructed tephra correlations using the trace element composition of volcanic glass determined by ICP-AES analysis. Consequently, many widespread tephra layers of Pliocene and early Pleistocene age have been identified and can now be correlated extensively in central Japan. This paper catalogs these tephras, and provides the fundamental criteria for the establishment of a regional Pliocene–Pleistocene chronostratigraphy in central Japan.