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A newly discovered ammonite faunule from the Padern region of the southern Corbières in southern France includes representatives of typical northwest European Upper Turonian species Subprionocyclus cf. neptuni (Geinitz, 1850) and Lewesiceras cf. woodi Wright 1979, tethyan/northwestern Pacifc species Phyllopachyceras cf. ezoense (Yokoyama, 1890), Anagaudryceras involvulum (Stoliczka, 1865) and, Desmoceras (Pseudouhligella) sp., together with Coilopoceras infatum Cobban and Hook, 1980, a species previously known only from New Mexico in the United States, where it is regarded as Middle Turonian. The faunule occurs above one with Romaniceras (R.) mexicanum Jones, 1938 and Coilopoceras springeri Hyatt, 1903, also originally described from New Mexico and northern Mexico, and recently described from the Uchaux massif in Vaucluse in southern France. The records suggest that the base of the Upper Turonian may be drawn at different, higher level in the United States Western Interior than in Europe. The coming together of these mixed faunal elements may be a result of high sea levels, and changing oceanic circulation patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Upper Cenomanian cover of the Palaeozoic Mouthoumet Massif (southern Corbières, Aude, France), on the southern flank of the Bézu anticline, shows accumulations of large platy corals. However, while being already presented in stratigraphic, palaeoecological and sedimentological contexts, these organisms have not been the subject of a palaeontological study. The coral fauna encompasses 16 species of the families Leptophylliidae, Microsolenidae, and Siderastraeidae and is here presented in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turonian successions of the southern Corbieres comprise three transgressive-regressive cycles in which ammonites occur in three intervals. The lowest comes from the glauconitic basal transgressive unit of the first cycle, and comprises 21 species, including Kamerunoceras douvillei (Pervinquiere, 1907), Kamerunoceras turoniense (d'Orbigny, 1850), Spathites (Jeanrogericeras) revelerianus (Courtiller, 1860), Spathites (Jeanrogericeras) combesi (d'Orbigny, 1856), Mammites nodosoides (Schluter, 1871), Mammites powelli Kennedy, Wright and Hancock, 1987, Fagesia tevestensis (Peron, 1896), Neoptychites cephalotus (Coutiller, 1860), Thomasites rollandi (Thomas and Peron, 1889), Wrightoceras wallsi Reyment, 1954, and Choffaticeras (Choffaticeras) quaasi (Peron, 1904). This is a Lower Turonian assemblage referred to the Mammites nodosoides Zone, although the possibility that elements from the preceding Fagesia catinus Zone are also present cannot be excluded. The fauna from the transgressive glauconitic interval of the succeeding cycle comprises nine species, including Romaniceras (Romaniceras) mexicanum Jones, 1938, Romaniceras (Yubariceras) ornatissimum (Stoliczka, 1864), Pseudotissotia galliennei (d'Orbigny, 1850), Collignoniceras woollgari (Mantell, 1822) sensu lato, Coilopoceras springeri Hyatt, 1903, and Eubostrychoceras (Eubostrychoceras) saxonicum (Schluter, 1872). They indicate the Middle Turonian Romaniceras (R.) mexicanum and R. (Y.) ornatissimum zones. The highest fauna, from the Marnes superieurs de Saint-Louis of the Saint-Louis syncline, is: Subprionocyclus sp. juv., Prionocyclus sp. and Worthoceras cf. rochatianum (d'Orbigny, 1850). The Subprionocyclus are minute individuals that resemble S. bravaisianus (d'Orbigny, 1841), and suggest the presence of the lower Upper Turonian bravaisianus Zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Le gisement de Paillon, dans les Petites Pyrénées de la Haute-Garonne (France), a livré à Leymerie (1878) une petite faune de rudistes dont certains taxons supportent encore des diagnoses insatisfaisantes. C’est le cas en particulier de Caprina incerta . Une révision de cette forme a été entreprise, à la fois sur le matériel originel et sur un matériel inédit, qui justifie la création du nouveau genre Pseudocaprinula . The Paillon outcrop, in the “Petites Pyrénées” of the Haute-Garonne (France), provided to Leymerie (1878) a rudist fauna, including some taxa still carrying inadequate diagnoses. In particular, this is the case of Caprina incerta . A review of this taxon undertaken both on the original material and on previously unpublished material justifies the creation of the new genus Pseudocaprinula . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé: L’ambre du Mas d’Azil (Ariège, France), utilisé par les Magdaléniens de la grotte du Mas d’Azil, a été recueilli dans des niveaux argileux riches en Cupressinoxylon Göppert, de la formation campanienne des Grès de Labarre, vaste système deltaïque de comblement du sillon sous-pyrénéen. Les morceaux sont de petite taille et ont une morphologie comparable aux exsudat des troncs de résineux actuels. Les inclusions recensées sont les suivantes. Actinomycètes : Cardonia stellata nov. gen., nov. sp., superficiel et abondant, avec des chaînes de conidies et des aleuriospores isolées ; Nocardiopsis ? sp. D peu abondant ; actinomycète de type « Salignac », abondant, dont les filaments forment des vrilles, prélude à une fragmentation du mycélium généralisée. Autres bactéries : Leptotrichites resinatus Schmidt (Schmidt et Schäfer, 2005), peu fréquent, plus variable que dans le matériel déjà connu ; cf. Sphaerotilus sp. très abondant, mais distinct du matériel fossile cénomanien décrit comme Sphaerotilus. Eucaryotes : un filament mycélien, un groupe de spores, grains de pollen ou kystes. Inclusions inorganiques : bulles, pseudoprotistes de type B et C ?, petits cristaux transparents cubiques. Il semble que la majorité des procaryotes recensés soient des résinicoles, ayant colonisé l’exudat de résine, l’inoculation se faisant soit par contact avec le substrat, soit par dispersion anémophile de spores. Cette « voie taphonomique » semble ici plus généralisée que le piégeage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Original unpublished documents from Jean-Baptiste Noulet (1802–1890) related to the archaeological site of the Infernet (Commune de Clermont-le-Fort, Haute-Garonne, France). In 1851, J.-B. Noulet, a doctor, naturalist and philologist from Toulouse, discovered at Clermont-le-Fort (Haute-Garonne), in the named place l''Infernet, a quarry with both Pleistocene faunas and lithic artefacts. First presented in 1853, on the 3rd February meeting of the ‘Académie des sciences de Toulouse’, this discovery was only published in 1860, depriving Noulet of more reputation. As those who followed, this publication had no illustration locating the quarry. It was however rediscovered and exploited in 1955–1956. In Noulet''s personal papers, offered by Louis Mengaud to Toulouse University Geological Laboratory library, we discovered, drawn by Noulet himself, a map and a cross section of Infernet quarry. These documents are presented in this note, 150 years after Noulet''s discovery. To cite this article: M. Bilotte, F. Duranthon, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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 Pyre´ne´es, 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. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

By us considered as Albo-Aptian in age and generated through halokinetic processes, the Bosmendiette breccias have been recently interpreted as Selandian (Palaeocene) globigerine-bearing sediments deposited in sub-marine canyons within a deep trough crossing the Pyrenees, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. These breccias are really azoic in their lower part and contain a scarce microfauna including radolarians and benthic foraminifera at the top of the formation. They are unconformably covered by the Urgo-Aptian limestones and marls and indicate, under opening marine conditions, Lower Cretaceous collapse movements and northward sliding of the Jurassic slumped cover, related to the growth of the Béloscare–Apoura diapir. To cite this article: J. Canérot et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The discovery of new amber outcrops in France in the last fifteen years and the reinvestigation of outcrops that had been forgotten provide new sources of palaeontological data. One of these forgotten localities is the Cenomanian outcrop of Fourtou in the Aude department, Southern France. Mentioned in old manuscripts since 1700, perhaps known and used since the Palaeolithic, the Cenomanian amber of Aude is still poorly studied. Here we present a synthesis of the data obtained on this amber, focusing on the outcrop of Fourtou that provided the largest quantity of amber in the area. Systematic and taphonomy of Fourtou amber inclusions are described and discussed in order to propose a hypothesis about the environment in which Cenomanian Fourtou amber was produced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]