Editing Last Interglacial (section)

== Definition ==
[[Image:Harting 1852 - Bittium reticulatum1.jpg|thumb|''[[Bittium|Bittium reticulatum]]'' Picture from Pieter Harting (1886) assigned by him as '[[Index fossil]]' for the Last Interglacial.]] The Last Interglacial was first recognized from [[borehole]]s in the area of the city of [[Amersfoort]], [[Netherlands]], by [[Pieter Harting]] (1875). He named the beds "Système Eémien", after the river [[Eem]] on which Amersfoort is located. Harting noticed the marine molluscan assemblages to be very different from the modern fauna of the [[North Sea]]. Many species from the Last Interglacial layers nowadays show a much more southern distribution, ranging from South of the [[Strait of Dover]] to [[Portugal]] ([[Lusitanian distribution|Lusitanian]] faunal province) and even into the [[Mediterranean]] (Mediterranean faunal province). More information on the molluscan assemblages is given by Lorié (1887), and Spaink (1958). Since their discovery, Last Interglacial beds in the Netherlands have mainly been recognized by their marine molluscan content combined with their stratigraphical position and other palaeontology. The marine beds there are often underlain by [[till]]s that are considered to date from the [[Saalian]], and overlain by local fresh water or wind-blown deposits from the [[Weichselian]]. In contrast to e.g. the deposits in Denmark, the Last Interglacial deposits in the type area have never been found overlain by tills, nor in ice-pushed positions.
Van Voorthuysen (1958) described the [[foraminifera]] from the type site, whereas Zagwijn (1961) published the [[palynology]], providing a subdivision of this stage into pollen stages. At the end of the 20th century, the [[type site]] was re-investigated using old and new data in a multi-disciplinary approach (Cleveringa et al., 2000). At the same time a [[wikt:parastratotype|parastratotype]] was selected in the [[Amsterdam]] glacial basin in the Amsterdam-Terminal borehole and was the subject of a multidisciplinary investigation (Van Leeuwen, et al., 2000). These authors also published a [[Uranium-thorium dating|U/Th]] age for late Last Interglacial deposits from this borehole of 118,200 ± 6,300 years ago. A historical review of Dutch Last Interglacial research is provided by Bosch, Cleveringa and Meijer, 2000.