Irish Pleistocene biostratigraphy

Abstract:An appraisal of published and unpublished Pleistocene biostratigraphical information allows a critical update of the framework of the Irish Quaternary to be presented in the form of a table. Details are presented of Early and Middle Pleistocene temperate stages, as well as new information on a possible last interglacial (Eemian) site in Wexford. The Irish sequence is compared with that of neighbouring continental Europe and with the global record of marine oxygen isotope stages. The Gortian Interglacial is reviewed, and the known sites are listed together with their biostratigraphical ranges. The biostratigraphy of the Midlandian Glaciation, about which we now have far more information, is also discussed along with details, including a pollen diagram, of the recently dated Early Midlandian deposits between Spa and Fenit at Kilfenora, County Kerry.