DISCOVERY OF CONSIDERABLE UPPER PLEISTOCE NE AND HOLOCENE FOSSIL FILLINGS IN THE KARST OF OLETTA REGION (CORSICA)

The Oletta cave seems to be one of the largest underground caves in Co rsica. The relationship between the organisation of the deforming stra ta and the karstic network shows that it is a karst of structural orig in which has developed above the basic level. The karstification seems old and the speleothemes have to be connected with the phenomena of t he climatic break of the Quaternary. Four types of fossiliferous infil lings are known. The largest one is the oldest. They express the alter nation of phases of sedimentation with different sedimentary dynamics. The most often found fauna is composed of mammals and gasteropoda. At least three faunal groups emerge: an old fauna with Cynotherium sardo us, Nesoleipoceros cazioti and Enhydrictis sp. that can be attributed to the Early Wurm or to the limit of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene; a middle fauna to the terminal Wurm and which is characterised here b y the absence of the three above mentioned mammals and lastly, a third group where the present fauna appears with, first, it seems, Rattus a nd Apodemus whereas Prolagus sardus persists for a long time.