Late persistence and deterministic extinction of “humid thermophilous plant taxa of East Asian affinity” (HUTEA) in southern Europe

Our analysis of fruit and seed assemblages in the San Lazzaro section (Umbria, central Italy), recently assigned to the early Pleistocene, provided contrasting evidence, which required a reconsideration of the stratigraphic and palaeontological context of another well known site in central Italy, Cava Toppetti II. Using vertebrate and continental mollusc biochronology the early Pleistocene age of this section was confirmed and its palaeontological records were compared with other assemblages in central Italy and Europe. We show that in central Italy at least three HUTEA species (Sinomenium cantalense, Symplocos casparyi, Toddalia rhenana) persisted after the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary. We conclude that central-southern Italy offered a refugial niche that was warm and wet enough to assure the longer survival of some HUTEA, in contrast to central Europe.