RECORDS OF A SEQUENCE OF TEMPERATE AND COLD STAGES FROM EARLY MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE LACUSTRINE DEPOSITS AT DEMSHINSK, LIPETSK DISTRICT, CENTRAL EUROPEAN RUSSIA

At Demshinsk, near Lipetsk, lacustrine deposits occupy a small basin in the surface of the Don Till, of early Middle Pleistocene age (MIS 16), representing the most extensive glaciation in European Russia. A 27 m core has been studied by means of pollen, plant macrofossil, sedimentological and palaeomagnetic analyses. Three distinct temperate intervals are recorded with climatic optima characterised by deciduous forest trees, particularly Quercus, Ulmus, Tilia and Corylus with Carpinus present in low quantity during the first and second temperate periods, abundant during the youngest. The pollen records of the temperate optima are distinct from that of the Lichvin Interglacial. Steppic elements, Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae, present throughout the sequence, predominated during intervening cooler intervals. A further warm interval may be indicated by a paleosol near the top of the core.

The two lower optima at Demshinsk belong to the Muchkapian Interglacial Complex of Russia (=Ferdinandowian of Poland, Belovezhian of Belarus) which we can correlate with the SPECMAP record of MIS15. Now, for the first time in eastern Europe, we can recognise a further one or possibly two temperate climatic optima that must relate to MIS 13. Furthermore, we can also make links with the rich microvertebrate and molluscan faunas of Muchkapian age from the Don basin. This succession and its faunas also permit a clearer correlation with the stratigraphically poorly defined "Cromerian" sequences of western Europe and recognition that the classic Cromerian stratotype at West Runton in England belongs to the lower optimum of MIS15.