Abstract A similarity analysis between the large-mammal faunas of France and the Italian peninsula for the Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene highlights the taxonomic and structural renewal of large-mammal assemblages that took place at the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition. This faunal renewal coincides with a period of climatic deterioration revealed by the spread of grasslands that supported more abundant ‘cold’ taxa. Nevertheless, both in France and in Italy, this passage is not marked by a real turnover (i.e. the complete or almost complete renewal of a mammal fauna), but by an extinction phase followed by a dispersal event.