A new amber deposit from the Cretaceous (uppermost Albian-lowermost Cenomanian) of southwestern France

Néraudeau, Didier; Perrichot, Vincent; Colin, Jean-Paul; Girard, Vincent; Gómez, Bernard; Guillocheau, François; Masure, Edwige; Peyrot, Daniel; Tostain, Florent; Videt, Blaise; Vullo, Romain

doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2008.05.009

Cited by 49 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The resins likewise engulfed the remains of Actinobacteria, fungi and other microbes from adjacent seasonal wetland soils that were starting to colonize the resins and woody matter. The rarity of insects and the predominance of soil-related components, thus far, may indicate that the amber largely seeped from, or quickly fell down, to the tree root systems (see Perrichot 2004;Néraudeau et al 2008). Heavy rains and floods, perhaps during the winter season, then carried these materials as driftwood from the parent coniferous forests and onto a marshy floodplain of the kind inhabited by herds of grazing Iguanodon.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Structures of comparable small size and appearance, also referred to the Actinobacteria, have been found by other researchers in younger deposits, notably from Barremian amber in Lebanon (e.g. Poinar & Milke 2001), from AlbianCenomanian amber of Cadeuil in France (Néraudeau et al 2008;Girard et al 2009b), and from around the margins of the Eocene amber of Corbieres in France (Breton 2007). It needs to be stressed, however, that it is not always easy to draw a distinction between the remains of prokaryotic Actinobacteria and of eukaryotic fungi within amber (e.g.…”

Section: Actinobacteria and Other Filamentsmentioning

confidence: 95%

See 1 more Smart Citation

First report of amber with spider webs and microbial inclusions from the earliest Cretaceous ( c . 140 Ma) of Hastings, Sussex

Brasier

Cotton

Yenney

2009

JGS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Early Cretaceous amber resins with macroscopic inclusions are extremely rare, as are ambers with inclusions from the parent plant. Here, we report earliest Cretaceous amber resins found within alluvial soils of the Ashdown Formation near Hastings in Sussex. In contrast to younger Cretaceous examples, this Hastings amber was arguably deposited shortly before the emergence of the earliest flowering plant communities c . 140 Ma BP. Preliminary studies reveal plentiful organic inclusions, including vascular tissues, tracheid cells and putative resin ducts of the parent coniferous trees. We also report remarkably preserved soil microbes, including structures comparable with actinobacterial colonies, putative fungal or cyanobacterial filaments, and the earliest examples of spider silk webs. The last includes threads that are twisted, paired and coated with sticky fluid droplets, comparable with those of araneoid spider webs studied by us in modern cherry tree resins. Together, these Hastings amber inclusions became entombed within resins that seeped through the charred bark of coniferous trees subjected to severe fire damage, whose logs were then swept onto fluvial wetlands by floods. Embalming resins of this kind may have evolved to combat damage associated with insects, fungi and widespread forest fires.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Actinobacteria and Other Filamentsmentioning

confidence: 95%

First report of amber with spider webs and microbial inclusions from the earliest Cretaceous ( c . 140 Ma) of Hastings, Sussex

Brasier

Cotton

Yenney

2009

JGS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The two wasps described below were found together with 44 other fossil arthropods, mainly dipterans and other hymenopterans, in a single piece of amber from the quarry of Cadeuil, Charente‐Maritime, SW France. The amber‐bearing stratum is Late Albian in age (Néraudeau et al . 2008).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New braconid wasps from French Cretaceous amber (Hymenoptera, Braconidae): synonymization with Eoichneumonidae and implications for the phylogeny of Ichneumonoidea

Perrichot¹,

Nel²,

Quicke³

2008

Zoologica Scripta

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two new fossils of Braconidae are described from Albian‐Cenomanian amber of south‐western France, Protorhyssalodes arnaudi gen. n., sp. n., and Aenigmabracon capdoliensis gen. n., sp. n. The former appears superficially similar to the type genus and species of the extinct sub‐family Protorhyssalinae, from Turonian New Jersey amber specimens, and the latter both to Protorhyssalus and to members of the extinct family Eoichneumonidae. However, both new taxa display unique combinations of wing venation characters making confident assignment to sub‐family impossible. Indeed, they are the first braconids ever known to possess both vein 2‐CU and a distinct trace of vein 2‐1A on hindwing. The new fossil taxa are incorporated into a morphological analysis of extinct and extant ichneumonoids. As a result of the analyses we synonymize the Eoichneumonidae with the Braconidae.

show abstract

“…Many Cretaceous amber-bearing deposits have been known in western France since the beginning of the 19th Century. The main localities are in Charentes (Lacroix, 1910;Schlüter, 1978;Néraudeau et al, 2002Néraudeau et al, , 2003Néraudeau et al, , 2005Néraudeau et al, , 2008Perrichot et al, 2007Perrichot et al, , 2010, Sarthe (Lacroix, 1910;Girard et al, 2013), Maine-et-Loire (Lacroix, 1910;Néraudeau et al, 2013), and Dordogne . Lacroix (1910) mentioned that amber had been reported from Carboniferous and Cretaceous lignites in Vendée by several authors (Cavoleau, 1818;Rivière, 1840Rivière, , 1842De la Fontenelle de Vaudoré, 1844) but even the precise descriptions of Cenomanian lignites from the south of Challans by Rivière (1842) and Louail (1984, p. 226) made no mention of amber despite noting the presence of very small crystals of gypsum and pyrite.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upper Cretaceous amber from Vendée, north-western France: Age dating and geological, chemical, and palaeontological characteristics

Néraudeau

Perrichot

Batten³

et al. 2017

Cretaceous Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Upper Cretaceous lignite deposits of La Garnache, Vendée (western France), consist of two lignitic clay series, Garnache 1 and Garnache 2, separated by a fault. The first series cropped out to the south of the fault during road works until 2002 but is now covered by an embankment. It has provided numerous pieces of amber containing arthropod and micro-organism inclusions. The second lignitic series, exposed to the north of the fault, is rich in fossil wood but devoid of amber. Palynological analysis of Garnache 1 revealed several Normapolles species belonging to the genera Atlantopollis, Complexiopollis, Osculapollis, Plicapollis and Trudopollis, but larger forms typical of Senonian deposits are absent. By contrast, Garnache 2 proved to be dominated taxonomically and numerically by spores (Appendicisporites, Camarozonosporites, Gleicheniidites, Patellasporites, Stereisporites), associated with a few gymnosperm (Cerebropollenites, Phyllocladidites, Classopollis) and angiosperm (Liliacidites, Retitricolpites and a single specimen of the Normapolles Complexiopollis) taxa. Garnache 1 is, therefore, younger than Garnache 2, the latter being clearly Cenomanian in age whereas Garnache 1 is more likely to be Turonian. Lignitic clay of Garnache 1 contains numerous translucent, orange to red, pieces of amber. Vendean amber is rich in aquatic arthropods, such as tanaids and epicarideans (Crustacea), as well as marine or brackish siliceous micro-organisms such as diatoms and sponge spicules. These aquatic inclusions indicate that resin-producing trees grew along and close to the seashore. The amber-bearing clay was deposited in a calm, estuarine or lagoonal, muddy environment.

show abstract

A new amber deposit from the Cretaceous (uppermost Albian-lowermost Cenomanian) of southwestern France

Cited by 49 publications

References 16 publications

First report of amber with spider webs and microbial inclusions from the earliest Cretaceous ( c . 140 Ma) of Hastings, Sussex

First report of amber with spider webs and microbial inclusions from the earliest Cretaceous ( c . 140 Ma) of Hastings, Sussex

New braconid wasps from French Cretaceous amber (Hymenoptera, Braconidae): synonymization with Eoichneumonidae and implications for the phylogeny of Ichneumonoidea

Upper Cretaceous amber from Vendée, north-western France: Age dating and geological, chemical, and palaeontological characteristics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About