Palaeoenvironmental and biostratigraphic data from the Resson tufa (Aube, France): reassessment of an eemian record

Abstract

Since the mid-19th century, the large tufa deposit of Resson (Aube, northern France) was of great interest to geologists and palaeontologists because of its rich content in macroflora and large mammal fossils, while some archaeological artefacts were also described. A geomorphological and sedimentological study in the mid-20th century assigned this deposit to the Last Interglacial. Despite its great potential for palaeoenvironmental investigation, the Resson tufa had not been studied since. We have recently retrieved the collection of plant imprints from Resson allowing new taxa determination, prospected the tufa location and made new malacological analyses. This paper thus combines new records and reassessed historical data to confirm the assignment of Resson tufa to the Eemian and discuss a first reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental dynamics in the Seine basin for this interglacial period, demonstrating the potential of this tufa deposit as a reference site for the Last Interglacial in northern France.