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The knowledge of the Eemian fauna of central Europe is based on the fossil record from a number of sites located in the eastern part of Germany Taking into account the short period of time covered by the Eemian s.s., the amount of data on the Eemian mammalian fauna is remarkably large. There is, however, still an ongoing debate on whether the stratigraphical position of a number of faunas are of Eemian or 'intra-Saalian' age. Furthermore, there are faunal assemblages or stratigraphically isolated finds referred to the Eemian without indisputable evidence. This is particularly the case in the Rhine valley, where most of the socalled Eemian fossils come from dredged assemblages. The picture of the evolution of the Eemian fauna and its geographical variation is consequently still incomplete.

International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) that the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) at Vrica, Calabria, Italy (Fig. 1) be used to define the base of the Calabrian Stage of the Pleistocene Series and Quaternary System. The Vrica GSSP had previously defined the base of the Pleistocene and Quaternary before these datum points were lowered in 2009 to the Monte San Nicola GSSP in Sicily, Italy, which also defines the base of the Gelasian Stage (Gibbard and Head, 2010; Gibbard et al., 2010). The proposal had been submitted to the ICS by the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (Table 1) on 29 November 2010, and was approved by the ICS on 2 May 2011 with an 85% majority (15 'yes', one 'no', one 'abstain', one 'non-response'). Ratification by the IUGS makes the Calabrian the second stage of the Pleistocene Series, immediately following the Gelasian as the lowest stage (Fig. 2). It is emphasised that the ratified proposal does not define a new GSSP, but merely names the stage that the GSSP now defines. The Calabrian Stage has been in existence for just over a century (Gignoux, 1910, 1913) and is well rooted in the literature, although its use beyond the Mediterranean domain declined after 1984 when the ICS approved the base Pleistocene GSSP in the Vrica section (Aguirre and Pasini, 1985) with a currently assigned age of 1.80 Ma. Nonetheless, its use has increased internationally in recent years, and its definition has been clarified together with calls for it to be accepted as a formal stage within the international geological time scale (Cita et al., 2006, 2008). In particular, now that the Pleistocene has been expanded to incorporate the Gelasian Stage, the Calabrian offers a practical means of subdividing this lower part of the Pleistocene. Indeed, these two stages together will comprise the Lower Pleistocene Subseries (Early Pleistocene Subepoch). common occurrence of left-coiling Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (above), and below the lowest occurrences of medium-sized Gephyrocapsa (including G. oceanica) and Globigerinoides tenellus. The top of the Olduvai Subchron is identified c. 8 m above the GSSP. Ratification of the Calabrian Stage effectively completes the Lower Pleistocene Subseries.

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Woolly mammoth δ13C and δ15N values remained amazingly stable throughout the last ∼50,000 years in north-eastern Siberia Kuitems, M.; van Kolfschoten, T.; Tikhonov, A. N.; van der Plicht, J.