Search results for "cretaceous"
showing 10 items of 182 documents
Flore turonienne des silex fossilifères de Châtellerault (Ouest de la France)
2018
International audience; Three new localities yielding fossiliferous flints are reported from the Châtellerault area (Vienne, western France). They include one archaeological site (La Grande Vallée) and two zones with alterite deposits (L’Aunas and Les Bariollières). Broken surfaces of flint nodules show co-occurrence of marine invertebrates such as bryozoans, echinoids (Micraster Agassiz, Orthopsis Cotteau), gastropods (Acteonella d’Orbigny), rudists, and sponges. The association of Acteonella, Micraster and Orthopsis confirms the Turonian age (Upper Cretaceous) of the fossil assemblage. The marine invertebrates co-occur with plant macroremains including fragments of conifer leafy axes such…
Conifers from the Cenomanian amber of Fouras (Charente-Maritime, western France)
2020
Fossil inclusions of arthropods and microorganisms are abundant in the Cretaceous amber from western France, but plant meso- or macroremains are scarce. Preserved remains are mostly tiny, very fragmented, and indeterminable. Only one amber locality in the Charente department has already provided conifer remains. Here, we report the first plant mesoremains ensnared in Cenomanian amber from Fouras – Bois Vert, in the Charente-Maritime department. They consist of three well-preserved leafy axes and one cone of Cheirolepidiacean conifers. Based on the helical arrangement of rhomboidal, longer than wide, and highly adpressed leaves, leafy axes are ascribed to the genus Pagiophyllum. The ovoid co…
Evidence of endothermy in the extinct macropredatory osteichthyan Xiphactinus audax (Teleostei, Ichthyodectiformes)
2020
Xiphactinus audax is the largest macropredatory osteichthyan ever known (Everhart et al., 2010). Some of the largest specimens exceed 5 m in total length, although the discovery of a few large, isolated teeth suggests that this teleost could reach even larger body sizes (Vavrek et al., 2016, and references therein). Fossil remains of this species have only been reported from the Upper Cretaceous of North America, across the Western Interior Basin (Schwimmer et al., 1997; Vavrek et al., 2016). The discovery of several virtually complete individuals in this area has provided valuable information about the anatomy, the dimensions, and the ecology of this species (Cope, 1872; Bardack, 1965). Xi…
100‐million‐year‐old ant–conifer associates inside French amber: a fortuitous or ecological association?
2020
International audience; Ants exhibit a plethora of ecological interactions with terrestrial plants. These interactions are broadly surveyed in modern ecosystems, but are much more difficult to unveil in the fossil record. Here, we report a unique ant–conifer association preserved in an opaque piece of 100‐million‐year‐old amber from Charentes in Western France, revealed by propagation phase‐contrast X‐ray synchrotron microtomography (PPC‐SRμCT). Most legs of the ant encircle the conifer twig, and the arthropod harbours a hooked position onto the leafy axis. The conifer is assigned to Glenrosa carentonensis Moreau, Néraudeau, Tafforeau and Dépré, whereas the ant is ascribed to Gerontoformica…
Carbon isotope stratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and 40Ar/39Ar age of the Cretaceous South Atlantic coast, Namibe Basin, Angola
2014
This publication results from Projecto PaleoAngola, an international cooperative research effort among the contributing authors and their institutions, funded by the National Geographic Society, the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society, Sonangol E.P., Esso Angola, Fundacao Vida of Angola, LS Films, Maersk, Damco, Safmarine, ISEM at SMU, The Royal Dutch Embassy in Luanda, TAP Airlines, Royal Dutch Airlines, The Saurus Institute, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. JS was additionally funded by Yale University and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation. We dedicate this contribution to the late Kalunga Lima, our friend and colleague in Projecto PaleoAngola. We thank Margar…
Late Cretaceous continental weathering evolution on the southern Atlantic margins of Africa and South America : contributions of a new geochemical tr…
2022
The late Cretaceous records a pronounced decrease in temperatures on a global scale between 90 and 65 million years that marks the first step of the progressive climatic decline ultimately leading to our modern climate mode. This first cooling step is concomitant to a major tectonic uplift of the east South American and west African margins. Relief formation on the African ans South American continent, enhancing continental weathering, can have induced a climatic cooling at a global scale through atmospheric CO2 consumption linked to silicate weathering reactions. The main objective of this project is to explore the potentially determinant impact of this tectonic uplift on the long-term coo…
A record of the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary climatic variation on the southern margin of the Tethys : clay minerals and palynofacies of the early Cr…
2005
Abstract In order to precise the paleogeographic extension of the climatic variation known at the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary, the sedimentary organic matter (palynofacies and Rock-Eval) and the clay minerals content of Berriasian sediments of the Sidi Kralif Formation are studied on the Jebel Meloussi section, central Tunisia. Standard sedimentological and palynofacies analysis allow to reconstruct the bathymetric curve and the sequence stratigraphic scheme. Using existing biostratigraphy based on calpionellids and ammonite zonation, the sequence stratigraphic interpretation can be correlated with the established eustatic chart. Clay mineral assemblages are characterized by a shift in the…
First record of the enigmatic coleoid genus Longibelus from Sakhalin (Far East Russia): a contribution to our understanding of Cretaceous coleoid hab…
2021
AbstractA newly collected specimen of the enigmatic coleoid genus Longibelus is recorded from lower Turonian strata along the River Shadrinka in Sakhalin (Russian Far East). To date, this is the first record of Late Cretaceous coleoid cephalopods from the island and, in fact, from the entire Pacific coast of the Russian Federation. Lithological characteristics, coupled with published geochemical analyses (δ13C and Corg content), suggest the habitat of this coleoid taxon to have been the middle to outer (i.e. distal) shelf. Its provenance from the stratigraphical level that is known as the Scaphites Event, characterised by a mass occurrence of Scaphites and Yesoites, may be indicative of occ…
Nouvelles données biostratigraphiques sur les dépots cénomanoturoniens du Nord-Est du fosse de ia Bénoué (Nigéria)
1993
Abstract The Upper Cretaceous deposits of the Upper Benue (North-East Nigeria) record regional and local events (sea-level changes, biological successions and tectonic movements) which throw light on the Upper Cenomanian transgression. Evidence of discontinuities and sedimentary assemblages well dated by micropalaeontological data, allows the sedimentary sequence to be interpreted in the context of sequence stratigraphy. The discovery of new ammonite faunas has enabled a more precise definition of the local biostratigraphy and a correlation of this with the standard zonal scheme. In the near future, when they are better known, the ammonite successions recognized in the Upper Benue could ena…
Un exemple de spéciation lié à l'eustatisme: l'apparition précoce de Schackoina cabri (foraminifère planctonique mésogéen)
1997
Investigation of planktic foraminifers from the Lower Aptian of the Vocontian Basin (SE France) reveals that Schackoina cabri makes a very discrete first appearance in the Weissi ammonite zone and not in the Deshayesi zone, i.e. before the global anoxic event OAE 1a and not after as was accepted in the literature. This discovery seems to support the recent model whereby speciation of planktic foraminifers occurred in marine lowstands and their real expansion during the ensuing sea-level rise.