Santonian Vendeen amber: large amounts of data from a small sample in north-western France
Résumé
Until now, Cretaceous amber in western France was found mainly in the Albian and Cenomanian of the Sarthe and Charente-Maritime departments (Schlüter, 1978; Perrichot et aL, 2010). A new Early Santonian deposit was discovered recently in the department of Vendée. This locality, however, was only accessible during road works, and thus a limited amount of material has been collected to date. In contrast with AlbianCenomanian amber deposits from western France, which contain mostly turbid-toopaque large amber pieces, the Vendeen deposit contains mostly small amber pieces that are ail translucent yellow to orange. The investigation of 5700 pieces totaling only 300 grams of amber revealed abundant organic inclusions, with 165 fossil arthropods and numerous microorganisms. In addition to various flying or crawling hexapods and arachnids that are commonly entombed in fossil resins, Vendeen amber remarkably contains many marine drganisms like crustaceans (tanaids, ostracods, and isopods), micro-algae (centric diatoms), and porifers (sponge spicules). This small but beautifullypreserved sample provides valuable information on a Late Cretaceous ecosystem of north-western France, and suggests the resin-producing trees were growing along the seashore. The sample adds to our understanding of the environments and ecosystems of the western part of the European Archipelago during the middle and early Late Cretaceous.