ABSTRACT The reduced Jurassic sedimentary sequences deposited on a structural high in the Umbria-Marche Apennines, as well their relationships with adjacent expanded basinal sequences, have been reconstructed through detailed, interdisciplinary study of the Sasso di Pale and Monte Serrone areas near Foligno, Italy. The physiographic features of the basin originated in the Early Jurassic (latest early Pliensbachian), when extensional tectonic activity broke up a shallow water platform where the Calcare Massiccio had been deposited, and the area evolved from an edge-stepped structural high to a distally steepened ramp. The biostratigraphic framework of this paper is mainly based on calcareous nannofossils, which are a useful tool for dating condensed Jurassic successions. Although the sections studied have limited thickness and much lateral facies variation, the sedimentary evolution can be traced and interpreted within a wider Jurassic environmental perspective. In the upper Pliensbachian–lower Bajocian interval, local sea-level variations are compatible with the global sea-level curve. Furthermore, some of the characteristic events—such as the Pliensbachian–Toarcian crisis, the Early Toarcian Jenkyns Event, and the Middle Jurassic carbonate crisis—can be recognized. The present study shows how the reconstruction of local paleogeography can fit into a more general framework and how regional and global signals can be recognized even in a small structural high such as the one we have investigated.

ABSTRACT The earliest Pleistocene fossil forest of Dunarobba (Umbria, Italy) consists of a set of more than 70 tree trunks of an extinct species of sequoia or cypress with original cellulose still preserved. Spectral analyses of tree-ring series (325 and 448 yr in duration) combined with oxygen isotope analyses of the cellulose provide a glimpse into the mean annual temperature and the interannual climate variability that characterized this region at the beginning of the Pleistocene, when the concentration of atmospheric CO 2 was ~400 ppm. The high-frequency variability of the ring width time series shows significant spectral components that are consistent with the influence from the North Atlantic Oscillation, and to a lesser extent, solar cycles and El Niño–Southern Oscillation. The mean annual temperature estimate of ~19 °C, based on a model that combines ring widths and oxygen isotope values, is a full 6 °C warmer than the present-day value for this region. These elevated temperatures are consistent with estimates from pollen analyses and with estimates from higher latitudes.