1. Diversité et paléoécologie de la faune du Crétacé supérieur associée au plésiosaurien du tuffeau de Maine-et-Loire.
- Author
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POUIT, Daniel, GANTIER, Flavie, ROUILLARD, Thomas, and MELLIER, Benoît
- Abstract
The release of a plesiosaurian from the tufa of Saumurois (Maine-et-Loire, France) made it possible to update more than 500 specimens divided into 52 taxa. Among the latter, the group of bivalve molluscs is the most abundant and diversified, it is dominated by the species Rhynchostreon suborbiculatum (Lamarck, 1801). The ammonite fauna is relatively poor and is composed of only 6 taxa indicating by the presence of a few Romaniceras (Romaniceras) kallesi (Zázvorka, 1958) a middle Turonian age (Layer D, unit ii) at the deposit. Added to this are a few taxa of cnidarians, bryozoans, annelids, gastropods, echinoderms and the first mention in the Turonian of Maine-et-Loire of a decapod of the species Enoploclytia leachi (Mantell, 1822). The vertebrate fauna is composed of a marine reptile of the order Plesiosauria (Mellier and Pouit, 2017) and the remains of chondrichthyans and osteichthyans. The chondrichthyans, represented by five species of lamniforms, are dominated by Squalicorax sp. Osteichthyans are represented by a single taxon Enchodus sp. The marine reptile of the Plesiosauria order (Mellier and Pouit, 2017) will be the subject of a subsequent comprehensive study. The assemblage of the Avort site reveals a rich and diversified palaeoecosystem both from a taxonomic and trophic point of view. The paleoecological study of the taxa indicates a warm and shallow sea corresponding to an infra-littoral coastal zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023