Fossil Mammals from the Makari Cave (North Western Sicily): Preliminary Report

The karst cave of Makari opens in the homonymous calcareous coastal plane at San Vito Lo Capo (Trapani). The cavity develops along a bedding plane in two levels, the larger with an area of about 1.540 m2 extends almost parallel to the overlying plane. From the speleogenetic point of view, the cave is a flank margin cave, formed by mixing dissolution in a telogenetic limestone. Encrustations by marine organisms on the cave’s walls reveal one or more phases under the sea level. An apparently thin deposit consisting of red soil is present into hollows of the cave’s floor. The deposit bears mammals’ remains associated with Homo sapiens. Observations on fossils are preliminary and have been carried in situ, the application for excavation permission being still in progress at the competent offices of “Regione Sicilia”. A sistematic excavation is needed to clear the taphonomic pattern and to collect mammal remains for a taxonomic study. At the state of knowledge, the assemblage can tentatively be attributed to Holocene.