The small mammal fauna from the palaeolithic site Marathousa 1 (Greece)

Abstract The lacustrine deposits exposed at the Lower Palaeolithic site Marathousa 1 (Megalopolis, S. Greece) and intercalated between lignite Seam II and III yielded a collection of small vertebrate remains. The assemblage includes fish and small mammals; the mammal assemblage encompasses a variety of species, dominated by voles (arvicolids) of the genera Arvicola and Microtus . Other rodents are represented by a dipod cf. Alactaga and a murid of the genus Apodemus . In addition, there is a number of insectivore remains that refer to the family Soricidae, and more specifically to the genus Crocidura . The unrooted Arvicola molars show a positive ‘Mimomys’ enamel differentiation with a mean SDQ value of 122, indicating a late Middle Pleistocene age (ca. 400 ka.) (MIS 12/11). The Marathousa 1 assemblage is clearly younger than the Choremi assemblages sampled ca. 20 years ago in the same basin. In the Choremi assemblage, Mimomys , the predecessor of the genus Arvicola , is the predominant arvicolid.