VILLAFRANCHIAN STAGE

major division of early Pleistocene deposits and time (the Pleistocene Epoch began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). The Villafranchian Stage was named for a sequence of terrestrial sediments studied in the region of Villafranca d'Asti, an Italian town near Turin. Deposits assigned to the Villafranchian have a widespread distribution; the name Villafranchian is also applied to a land-mammal faunal assemblage that is distinctive. Some dispute exists as to the actual time span included within the Villafranchian. The Villafranchian may include sediments that are partly Pliocene in age and partly Pleistocene or it may be entirely Pleistocene. It is likely that the Villafranchian includes within it the PliocenePleistocene boundary. This boundary is determined by Villafranchian mammals, which include the first appearances of such distinctive forms as zebrine horses and true elephants, as well as distinctive associated forms. The Villafranchian is in part contemporaneous with the Blancan Stage of North America. The Blancan, however, is clearly Pliocene in part and apparently begins earlier than the Villafranchian. Further study is necessary to determine the most precise placement of the PliocenePleistocene boundary and its relationship to the Villafranchian. The Villafranchian also is significant because within it the earliest hominids that clearly evolved into modern man (the australopithecines) appeared, although australopithecine history may well be shown to extend into the Pliocene Epoch. The australopithecines were small, erect, efficiently bipedal creatures with brain capacities scarcely exceeding that of the modern apes but with distinctly human dentitions and other skeletal features. In Mediterranean Europe, Villafranchian deposits grade into marine sediments, allowing marine and terrestrial correlations to be made.