Oltet River Valley Paleontological Project
Project
ID: 00000C927
Public
The Olteţ River Valley (ORV) Project is focused on providing paleoenvironmental and geological context to the early Pleistocene of Eurasia, specifically fossil sites from the Olteţ River Valley of Romania. This time period and region is marked by significant climatic, environmental, and faunal shifts and is the time during which Homo first appears in the Eurasian fossil record. Since 2012 our research team (led by Claire Terhune (University of Arkansas), Sabrina Curran (Ohio University), and Alexandru Petculescu (“Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology)) has been working to update and revise the taxonomy and biochronology for sites in the Olteţ River Valley. One of these sites, Grăunceanu, is one of the most fossiliferous deposits from the early Pleistocene of Eastern Europe. Models included in this project stem from the following publications: Terhune CE, Curran S, Croitor R, Dragusin V, Gaudin T, Petculescu A, Robinson C, Robu M, Werdelin L. 2020. Early Pleistocene fauna of the Olteţ River Valley of Romania: Biochronological and biogeographic implications. Quaternary International 553, 14-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.06.020 Curran S, Terhune CE, Croitor R, Dragusin V, Fox DL, Garrett N, Ironside LB, Petculescu A, Pobiner B, Robinson C, Robu M, Tanţău I, Ungar P. 2021. Multiproxy paleoenvironmental reconstruction of early Pleistocene sites from the Olteţ River Valley of Romania. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 574, 110445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110445 Terhune CE, Gaudin T, Curran SC, Petculescu A. 2021. The youngest pangolin (Mammalia, Pholidota) from Europe: Pangolin remains from the early Pleistocene locality of Grăunceanu, Romania. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41(4), e1990075. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2021.1990075 Croitor R, Robinson C, Curran S, Terhune CE, Dragusin V, Pobiner B, Popescu A, Petculescu A. 2023. Early Pleistocene Ruminants (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the Dacian Basin (South Romania) before and after the Pachycrocuta event: implications for hominin dispersals in western Eurasia. Historical Biology: 1-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2023.2167602