Two alternative age models are presented for the Pleistocene part of the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary stratotype section at Vrica (Calabria, southern Italy). Both age models, or chronologies, are based on the correlation of the characteristic sapropel pattern to the summer insolation time series of astronomical solution La90. The first age model is based on the assumption that the succession is continuous, whereas a global near synchroneity of the base of large-sized Gephyrocapsa in oxygen isotope stages 48--49 is assumed in the second model. This model implies that a major hiatus with exactly the same age and duration is present in both the Vrica and Singa sections. Cross-spectral analysis between sea surface temperature and Δ18O time series and the summer insolation target yields highly significant coherencies in the precession and obliquity frequency bands of the spectrum in cases where the continuous age model is applied but results in less significant coherencies in cases where the alternative age model is applied. According to the continuous model, the position of almost all calcareous plankton datum planes relative to the isotope stages is consistent with that found in the adjacent northern Atlantic. The only marked exception is the base of large Gephyrocapsa, which is found in stage 55 in the Mediterranean, whereas it occurs in stage 48 (or top 49) in the open ocean. The alternative age model solves the large Gephyrocapsa discrepancy but leads to significant discrepancies in the position of other calcareous plankton events. On the basis of these data sets, it is not justified to conclude which age model is correct, although most arguments are in favor of the continuous age model. This model is also supported by shipboard results from Ocean Drilling Program Legs 154 and 160 sites. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996