Michel Bilotte

Late Maastrichtian continental vertebrates from southwestern France: correlation with marine fauna

Abstract The Cassagnau locality (Marignac-Laspeyres, Haute-Garonne department) has yielded the richest vertebrate assemblage of Late Maastrichtian age in western Europe. Numerous bones can be referred to various fishes, amphibians, chelonians, squamates, crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds, some of which constitute the first Late Maastrichtian occurrences in Europe (a large varanoid lizard, a longirostrine crocodile, an enantiornithine bird) or in Southern France (a titanosaurid dinosaur). The latter discovery shows that at least five dinosaur families were represented in the Late Maastrichtian of western Europe. As for other localities of the French Petites Pyrenees, the age of the Cassagnau locality can be directly constrained by biostratigraphical and biochronological evidence based on associated marine and continental microfauna and microflora; therefore, the assemblages from these localities can be considered as reference assemblages for the continental Late Maastrichtian localities of Southern Europe, the age of which has been much disputed.

Découverte d'un gisement à vertébrés dans le Maastrichtien supérieur des Petites-Pyrénées

Abstract A new Late Maastrichtian locality from the Petites-Pyrenees has yielded an important vertebrate fauna. It includes Chondrichthyes (undetermined neoselachian), Osteichthyes (Lepisosteidae, Phyllodontinae, Sparidae?), Chelonia (Pleurodira), Crocodylia, and Dinosauria (Theropoda, Hadrosauridae, Nodosauridae). It is the first mention of a Cretaceous phyllodontine and the first mention of an ankylosaur in the French Late Maastrichtian. Lestaillats is the richest Late Maastrichtian locality in southern France because of the occurrence of both a microfauna and macrovertebrates. It offers new perspectives for the knowledge of the diversity and the evolution of the European vertebrate assemblages in the Latest Cretaceous.

Cenomanian ammonites from Pech de Foix (Ariège, France)

Ammonite faunas from two Cenomanian outcrops in the “Chainon du Pech de Foix” (Ariege, France), Sezenac and the Cluse de Pereille, provide the first records of the guerangeri (lower Upper Cenomanian) and jukesbrownei (upper Middle Cenomanian) zones in the North-Pyrenean Cenomanian.

Nouvelles données paléontologiques et stratigraphiques au passage Aptien - Albien dans les Pyrénées ariégeoises (France)

New paleontological and stratigraphical data at the Aptian - Albian transition in the Ariege Pyrenees (France).- The discovery of ammonites of the Aptian - Albian transition (Hypacan- thoplites jacobi and Leymeriella tardefurcata biozones) in the Urgonian series from the sedimentary section exposed in the Arize massif invalidates their former attribution to the lower Clansayesian which was proposed on the basis of unconstrained paleontological arguments.

Comment to “Latest-Cretaceous/Paleocene karsts with marine infillings from Languedoc (South of France); paleogeographic, hydrogeologic and geodynamic implications by P. J. Combes et al.”

1 Laboratoire des Mécanismes et Transferts en Géologie, 39 allées Jules-Guesde, 31062 Toulouse cedex 4, France. 2 INRAP, ZA les Champs Pinsons, 13, rue du Négoce, 31650 Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, France. 3 37, avenue de Cousse, 31750 Escalquens, France. 4 École des Mines de Nancy, Département des Sciences de la Terre, LAEGO-Mines, 54042 Nancy, France. 5 École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, Géosciences, 35, rue Saint-Honoré, 77305 Fontainebleau, France.

Adrahentina iberica nov. gen., nov. sp.Miliolide nouveau du Maestrichtien pyreneen

Resume Adrahentina iberica nov. gen., nov. sp., est un Miliolide trematophore, lacaziniforme, caracterise par un test agglutineau plancher de la loge.

La Sierra Madre orientale (Mexique). Une rampe homoclinale mésocrétacée en bordure du golfe

Abstract New data from the Sierra Madre Oriental, in the Metztitlan, Xilitla and Sierra de El Abra areas, indicate a gradual, homoclinal ramp-type evolution from the Lower Cretaceous thin bedded outer-shelf Tamaulipas limestones to the Mid-Cretaceous massive innershelf Abra limestones. The common sedimentary model of an isolated Abra platform towering above the Tamaulipas basin through a reef barrier (Taninul fades) or through marine slope breccias (Tamabra Fm.) is rejected. The proposed interpretation can be extended to different platforms which developed in the western margin of the Gulf of Mexico and specially to the Golden Lane and Poza Rica areas where the Mid Cretaceous Abra carbonates provided important oil fields.