East–West European Middle Pleistocene correlation – the contribution of the first British record of Aracites interglacialis Wieliczk.

Abstract Reported here is the first record of the extinct Aracites interglacialis Wieliczk. (possibly in the family Araceae) from the British Pleistocene at Gilson, Warwickshire in the English Midlands. The palynological assemblages from the Aracites interglacialis seed-bearing sediments at Gilson support a correlation with those from the Hoxnian stratotype at Hoxne, Suffolk, England (Middle Pleistocene). The data indicate correlation with the middle and latter part of the Hoxnian Stage (correlated with the Holsteinian Stage). Like at Hoxne, the organic sediments at Gilson occur in a small depression (probably a kettle hole) on Anglian cold Stage (correlated with the Elsterian Stage) outwash sands and gravels, showing that they were deposited after this glaciation ended. Velichkevich et al. (2004) stated that Aracites interglacialis “is characteristic only of the Mazovian interglacial and is abundant in fossil floras in Poland, Belarus and Russia”. Using the presence of Aracites interglacialis as a biostratigraphic marker therefore allows the correlation of the British Hoxnian Stage with the Belarussian Alexandrian Stage, Polish Mazovian Stage and the Russian Likhvinian Stage.