Jean-David Moreau

New Hettangian tracks from the Causses Basin (Lozère, southern France) complement the poor fossil record of earliest Jurassic crocodylomorphs in Europe

Abstract A new vertebrate ichnological assemblage is described from the Hettangian Dolomitic Formation of the Causses Basin, at Le Serre (Lozère, southern France). We report tracks that complement the poor fossil record of lowermost Jurassic crocodylomorphs in Europe. Tetradactyl pes and pentadactyl manus imprints form a unique trackway. Traces are ascribed to Batrachopus isp. and they represent the third occurrence of this ichnogenus in European Hettangian geological formations. This is the first report of Batrachopus in Hettangian deposits of the Causses Basin. The tracks share some similarities with Batrachopus deweyi previously described from the Sinemurian of the Causses Basin. Crocodylomorph tracks co-occur with tridactyl dinosaur traces assigned to Dilophosauripus williamsi and Grallator isp. The sedimentology and palaeoichnology of the tracksite indicate that the depositional environment was a tidal to supratidal flat marsh that was emerged periodically. The ichnological assemblage from Le Serre and a synthesis of ichnotaxa co-occurring with Batrachopus in the European lowermost Jurassic tracksites confirm that crocodylomorphs living in marginal-littoral palaeoenvironments were part of theropod-dominated faunas, together with ornithopods but apparently without sauropods.

Albian flora from Archingeay-Les Nouillers (Charente-Maritime): comparison and synthesis of Cretaceous meso- and macro-remains from the Aquitaine Basin (southwestern France)

ABSTRACT Over recent decades, diverse structures ascribed to angiosperms, bennettitaleans, conifers, cycads, ginkgophytes and pteridosperms have been reported from the Cretaceous deposits of the Aquitaine Basin (southwestern France). However, Albian macrofloras remain uncommon in Aquitania as well as in France. The clay from the Archingeay-Les Nouillers quarries is one of the rare deposits of the Aquitaine Basin to yield Albian plant meso- and macro-remains. Although Albian plant-bearing beds are not accessible any more in these quarries, samples collected from excavations conducted at the end of the XXth century were deposited in the collections of the University of Rennes 1. This paper provides a synthesis of the meso- and macro-remains contained in these collections, including angiosperm leaves and leafy conifer axes, dated as Late Albian. Providing here an inventory of the Cretaceous meso- and macro-remains from the Aquitaine Basin, we compare the Albian flora from Archingeay-Les Nouillers with pre-Albian, Albian, Cenomanian, and Turono-Coniacian floras from other localities in southwestern France.

Rediscovery of the allegedly “destroyed” holotype of Weltrichia fabrei Saporta, 1891 from the Rhaetian?/Hettangian of Lozère (Southern France)

ABSTRACT A sandstone slab bearing plant macro-remains was rediscovered during recent investigations led in the buildings of the old Musée Ignon-Fabre (Mende) which were closed in 1995 and emptied in 2003. The study of the slab clearly allows it to be identified as the holotype of Weltrichia fabrei Saporta, 1891 which has been considered destroyed since the end of the 20th Century. Gaston de Saporta described this Bennettitalean fructification based on a cast and considered the type locality as Rhaetian in age. In the present paper, based on the holotype, W. fabrei was revised in order to describe and illustrate the specimen in detail. It consists of a cup with one whorl of at least seven, slender and elongated sporophylls that apically curve inwards. Sporophylls display a dorsal median ridge, an acute apex and look leathery. Distally, the adaxial surface of sporophylls bears up to seven, elongated, tips forming branched structures comparable to the large pollen bearing organs observed among Upper Triassic/ Lower Jurassic Bennettitalean fructifications. Here, the chronostratigraphic assignment of the type locality is discussed considering a Rhaetian?/early Hettangian age for the sandstone bearing W. fabrei. The depositional environment of W. fabrei was probably continental with a vast floodplain in which channels periodically occurred.