The paralic Albian–Cenomanian Puy-Puy Lagerstätte (Aquitaine Basin, France): an overview and new data

Didier Neraudeau (1) , Romain Vullo (1) , Pierre Bénéfice , Gérard Breton (1) , Éric Dépré (2) , Danièle Gaspard (3) , Vincent Girard (4) , Matthieu Le Couls (1) , Jean-David Moreau (5) , André Nel (6) , Vincent Perrichot (1) , Monica Moryama Solorzano-Kraemer (7) , Torsten Wappler (8)

1 GR - Géosciences Rennes
2 GIP GEVES - Groupement d'Intérêt Public "Groupe d'Etudes et de Contrôle des Variétés et des Semences"
3 CR2P - Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris
4 UMR ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier
5 LDO - Domaines Océaniques
6 ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité
7 UKB - Universitätsklinikum Bonn
8 Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt

The Puy-Puy quarry at Tonnay-Charente (Charente-Maritime, SW France) is a sand quarry exposing a 9-m-thick series of latest Albian–earliest Cenomanian (mid-Cretaceous) age. The uppermost Albian deposits consist of lignitic clay containing fossiliferous amber. The lowermost Cenomanian sand deposits alternate with clay intercalations containing plant remains. One of these clay levels, named P1, shows an outstanding accumulation of conifer and angiosperm macrofossils including delicate reproductive structures such as flowers. Plant remains are associated with invertebrates such as insects (Odonata, Dictyoptera, Diptera), crustaceans (Mecochirus sp.), putative brachiopods (aff. Lingula sp.), and worms. A few vertebrate remains such as shark egg capsules (Palaeoxyris sp.) and a feather are present in the fossil assemblage, as well as an enigmatic specimen tentatively interpreted as a cephalochordate or a petromyzontiform. Various ichnofossils occur in abundance, such as crustacean coprolites and burrows (Ophiomorpha isp.), insect coprolites (Microcarpolithes hexagonalis), and leaves with grazing structures, galls and mines. The sediments have been deposited in a coastal, calm and brackish area.

Domaines: Paléontologie

Didier Neraudeau, Romain Vullo, Pierre Bénéfice, Gérard Breton, Éric Dépré, et al.. The paralic Albian–Cenomanian Puy-Puy Lagerstätte (Aquitaine Basin, France): an overview and new data. Cretaceous Research, 2020, 111, pp.Art. n°104124. ⟨10.1016/j.cretres.2019.03.022⟩. ⟨insu-02088578⟩