First unambiguous record of the tortoise genus Testudo from the Italian Pliocene

The fossil record of the extant tortoise genus Testudo (Testudines: Testudinidae) dates back to the Early Miocene. In Middle and Late Miocene times, these small-sized testudinids colonised Western Europe, with the Apennine peninsula being one of the latest areas to be invaded. While a few occurrences of Testudo exist in the Upper Miocene of Italy, and remains of the living Hermann's tortoise, Testudo (Chersine) hermanni, are almost ubiquitous in Pleistocene sites of the Apennine peninsula, evidence is wanting for the occurrence of Testudo in the Italian Pliocene. Here, we report on carapacial and plastral fragments from Upper Pliocene paralic deposits exposed at La Serra, a recently discovered palaeontological site of the Valdelsa Basin (Tuscany, central Italy). The studied samples are shown to compare favourably with the subgenus Testudo (Chersine), yet they are different from the Hermann's tortoise, which nonetheless appears to be present in older or roughly coeval deposits of northern Greece. These fossils demonstrate the occurrence of Testudo in the Italian Pliocene while evoking the subsequent colonization of the Apennine peninsula by T. (C.) hermanni through westward dispersal from Eastern Europe. Further research on the terrestrial vertebrate assemblage from La Serra will hopefully shed new light on this coastal Pliocene palaeoecosystem, which may also prove valuable in a conservation palaeobiology perspective.