Middle and late pleistocene biostratigraphy and paleoclimate of an open-pit coal mine Schoningen Germany

In the Schoningen open-pit lignite mine (Northeastern Lower Saxony, Germany), Tertiary strata are unconformably overlain by Quaternary sediments and soils of Middle and Late Pleistocene and Holocene age. The complex Pleistocene sequence contains a number of interglacial and interstadial deposits and soils and is of scientific importance for Late Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy of Central Europe and because of archeological evidence of early human occupation by Home erectus. There is evidence of four interglacials younger than the third-last glaciation (Elsterian). The classical Holsteinian is followed by the newly discovered biostratigraphic unit Reinsdorf, an interglacial complex which contains archeological horizons with wooden artifacts. Based on paleoecological fauna and flora data, the lithological setting and preliminary age determinations, the Reinsdorf Interglacial likely correlates with marine isotope stage 9 and the Holsteinian with stage 11.