The Middle Pleistocene large mammal fauna from Kyparissia (Peloponnese, S. Greece): New collected material

Abstract

Kyparíssia is a fossil vertebrate locality of Middle Pleistocene age, situated at the NW margin of the Megalopolis Basin (central Peloponnese, Greece), within the homonymous lignite mine. The Megalopolis area, an intramontane basin filled mainly with Pleistocene fluvial and lacustrine sediments, is well known since the dawn of the 20th century for its palaeontological wealth, particularly regarding fossils of mammalian megaherbivores (see Athanassiou, 2018; Athanassiou et al., 2018; Konidaris et al., 2018; and references therein). The development of extensive open-cast mines since 1970 provided access to long and deep stratigraphic sections, facilitating the discovery of new sites. The Kyparíssia mine is the northernmost in the basin and was in full operation until 2006. The mine area is filled with lacustrine deposits, dominated by thick lignite layers, which are covered unconformably by fluvial and alluvial fan sediments.