The Decapod fauna from Belvedere di Selvamaggio (Tuscany, Italy): sedimentological context and palaeoenvironmental inferences.

We report a decapod assemblage including axiideans, anomurans, and brachyurans fromBelvedere di Selvamaggio close to Colle di Val d’Elsa (Siena, Tuscany, central Italy). The peculiarfaunal assemblage includes several specimens assigned to species previously reported in the fossil re-cord of Italy, and mainly to the LeucosiidaeSamouelle, 1819, with predominance of Ebalia tuberosa(Pennant, 1777), an extant species already reported dubiously in the Pleistocene fossil record of Italy.The studied assemblage includes other species, as follows: Callianassa sp. (Callianassidae Dana,1852); Calliax sp. and Calliaxina cf. C. punica (de Saint Laurent & Manning, 1982) (Eucallia -cidae Manning & Felder, 1991); Anapagurus sp. (Paguridae Latreille, 1802); Ethusa cf. E. mas­carone Herbst, 1785 (Ethusidae Guinot, 1977); Ilia nucleus (Linnaeus, 1758); Ristoria pliocaenica(Ristori, 1891) (Leucosiidae Samoulle, 1819); Pisa sp. (Epialtidae MacLeay, 1838); Atelecyclusundecimdentatus (Herbst, 1783) (Atelecyclidae Ortmann, 1893); Distolambrus cf. D. angulifrons(Latreille, 1825) (Parthenopidae MacLeay, 1838); Thalamita italica Garassino, Pasini, De Ange-li & Charbonnier in Garassino et al., 2012 (Portunidae Rafinesque, 1815); and Eriphia cocchiiRistori, 1886 (Eriphiidae MacLeay, 1838). Finally, twelve isolated incomplete fingertips have been assigned to the snapping shrimp Alpheus Fabricius, 1798 (Alpheidae Rafinesque, 1815). The stud-ied specimens are herein assigned to the lower Pleistocene (Quaternary), based on the ostracofaunaassemblage found with decapods. According to sedimentological and palaeoecological evidences,a shallow water nearshore marine palaeoenvironment (submerged beach) is proposed.