Pleistocene molluscs from research boreholes in the Heidelberg Basin

Abstract. Cores cut in the research boreholes at Viernheim and Parkinsel P34 and P35 in Ludwigshafen were analysed to investigate their fossil content, and particularly the remains of molluscs. The selected material was suitable for reconstructing the palaeoclimatic conditions and simplifies the chronostratigraphic classification of individual beds. Two mollusc species and one rodent species from the Lower Pleistocene (Lower Biharium) were identified in the northern Upper Rhine Graben for the first time (in the Viernheim borehole). The fossils from the Lower Pleistocene sections of the Viernheim borehole are clearly related to the Uhlenberg fauna from Bavarian Swabia dated as Upper Villanium/Tegelen.