The paralic Albian–Cenomanian Puy-Puy Lagerstätte (Aquitaine Basin, France): An overview and new data

Abstract

Charente-Maritime, SW France) is a sand quarry exposing a 9-m-thick series of latest Albian-earliest Cenomanian (mid-Cretaceous) age. The uppermost Albian deposits consist of lignitic clay containing fossiliferous amber. The lowermost Cenomanian sand deposits alternate with clay intercalations containing plant remains. One of these clay levels, named P1, shows an outstanding accumulation of conifer and angiosperm macrofossils including delicate reproductive structures such as flowers. Plant remains are associated with invertebrates such as insects (Odonata, Dictyoptera, Diptera), crustaceans (Mecochirus sp.), putative brachiopods (aff. Lingula sp.), and worms. A few vertebrate remains such as shark egg capsules (Palaeoxyris sp.) and a feather are present in the fossil assemblage, as well as an enigmatic specimen tentatively interpreted as a cephalochordate or a petromyzontiform. Various ichnofossils occur in abundance, such as crustacean coprolites and burrows (Ophiomorpha isp.), insect coprolites (Microcarpolithes hexagonalis), and leaves with grazing structures, galls and mines. The sediments have been deposited in a coastal, calm and brackish area.

Paleohistology of the Cretaceous resin‐producing conifer Geinitzia reichenbachii using X‐ray synchrotron microtomography

“…The well‐developed hypodermis decreased the ultraviolet penetration in the leaves and allowed the thermal load to be reduced (Darling, 1989; Larcher, 2003). However, regionally G. reichenbachii was also reported in innermost, shallow and brackish environments (Néraudeau et al, 2020), suggesting that this taxon was adapted to a range of marginal‐littoral paleoenvironments. The Aquitaine Basin is considered to be located at a latitude of 35°N during the Upper Cretaceous (Philip et al, 1993).…”

“…In western France, the genus Geinitzia was reported from numerous Albian (Lower Cretaceous) to Senonian (Coniacian‐Maastrichtian; Upper Cretaceous) paleobotanical sites, particularly in the Charente, Charente‐Maritime, Dordogne, Maine‐et‐Loire, and Vienne departments (Gomez et al, 2004, 2019; Néraudeau et al, 2005, 2020; Saint‐Martin et al, 2013; Moreau et al, 2014b, 2016, 2017a, 2018, 2019). In most of them, plant remains are preserved as impressions or compressions in lignitic clay, with or without preserved cuticle (Gomez et al, 2004; Néraudeau et al, 2005, 2020; Saint‐Martin et al, 2013; Moreau et al, 2017a). Due to the nature of this preservation, tissues of Geinitzia from this area were never observed.…”