Rec;u le 5 mai 1998, revise le 7 janvier 1999, accept6 le 12 janvier 999) Abstract -Introduction and reworking of thanatofaunas in deep shelf sediments of the Western Channel Approaches. Macro-and micro-faunas are reported from six gravity cores collected at a mean depth of 150 m in the surficial deposits of the Kaiser sand bank in the Southern Western Channel Approaches. These are bivalves (mainly), gastropods, echinids, crustaceans and foraminifers. These fauna present a very rich association of numerous, well preserved species from various ecological settings. Such an association is commonly reported from the continental shelf of the last transgressive cycle. In addition, the sediment comprises two imported fauna1 associations. The first one corresponds to thanatocaenoses of Pliocene/lowermost Pleistocene and Weichselian age, reworked respectively from the underlying Celtic incised valley fills and the Celtic Sand Banks. The absence of Quatemary fauna prior to the Weichselian suggests that the introduction of Pliocene sources occurred during the last climatic cycle. The second stage of importation took place after the last transgression in the Western Channel, and corresponds to the enrichment of the sediment in coastal fauna derived from western Brittany by the the predominant ebb tidal current. The variations of taxonomic diversity from core to core suggest a sediment transport around the bank that matches the one deduced from the study of tidal bedforms. At the present day, the wave action is highlighted by accumulation of species of the same shape, size and density inside storm beds. Wowever, the survival within these beds of very small, juvenile shells indicate that each storm reworking was short in duration. 0 Elsevier, Paris / Ifremer / CNRS / IRD continental shelf / thanatofauna / sea level / reworking / transport R&urn6 -Cette etude concerne les thanatofaunes de six carottes gravitaires prelev& sur un bane de la plate-forme profonde des approches occidentales de la Manche. Les associations de faune sont riches en individus entiers ou en fragments bien conserves et montrent une forte diversite ecologique, qui reflete l'enregistrement du demier cycle transgressif sur la plate-forme continentale. Elles montrent en outre deux &apes d'importation faunique. La premiere correspond a l'introduction dans le sediment superficiel de deux thanatocenoses d'ages Pliocene-Pleistocene basal et Weichselien, qui pro-Oceanoiogica (1999 1 22, 4, 381-398 Q Elsevier, Paris / fremer / CNRS / IRD

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Find of a marine fish-fauna in the preevaporitic Messinian of the Messara (Central Crete, Greece) : palaeoecological interpretation. The palaeoecological study of two new Messinian fossiliferous localities of the southern part of the Heraklion basin (Crete, Greece) shows that, according to information provided by diatoms, benthic foraminifera and molluscs, the mesopelagic fishes collected in these localités were fossilized in the shallow waters of the neritic zone.

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