Biostratigraphische Begriffe aus der Säugetierpaläontologie für das Pliozän und Pleistozän Deutschlands

Abstract. The biostratigraphical subdivision of the Quaternary in central Europe has followed various approaches, and its terminology is correspondingly large. At first, stages in the development of mammal fauna were named after the sites of typical finds and arranged chronologically (e.g. KRETZOI 1962, 1969, JANOSSY 1969). Repeated efforts to correlate them with glacial and interglacials were difficult, however, because most fauna came from unglaciated regions, and no correlations based on well-defined superpositions were possible. The faunal succession had already shown that the number of interglacials in the classic system was not enough to explain the different warm-stage faunas. Deep-sea boreholes soon showed that the number of oscillations was much higher than PENCK & BRÜCKNER (1909) had assumed. The biostratigraphical subdivision of the Late Tertiary was refined by defining the boundaries of the individual stages by first and last appearances of characteristic species of mammals (FAD = First Appearance Date, LAD = Last Appearance Date).