Annales de Paleontologie最新文献

Human harvesting has been considered as the main cause of depletion and even extinction for many littoral species in the Mediterranean through the Pleistocene to Holocene. One of the most endangered marine species nowadays in this area is the Mediterranean Ribbed Limpet (Patella ferruginea), whose reduction in its distributional area and population number has been traditionally associated with human pressure. However, according to the fossil records and the information available, it seems that the environmental factors could be responsible for its extirpation of some areas in the Mediterranean during the Quaternary such as the Balearic archipelago.

The Lower Cretaceous ammonite species Ammonites flexisulcatus d’Orbigny is revised on the basis of seventy-five topotype specimens, including the newly designated neotype, from the Cassis–Roquefort-la-Bédoule area, southern France. Because of its suture line and juvenile shell morphology, Ammonites flexisulcatus belongs to the family Desmoceratidae, and is herein assigned to the upper Aptian genus Caseyella Cantú-Chapa. Our palaeobiological study documents a morpho-dimensional dimorphism based on small-sized, robust, ribbed microconchs with a short ventral rostrum, and large, high-whorled macroconchs with a simple aperture. This species occurs in the upper part of the Epicheloniceras martini standard ammonite zone in both the South Provence and Vocontian Basin of southeastern France. Another morphotype of Caseyella, which occurs in the lower part of the Epicheloniceras martini Zone of southern France and Spain, differs by a flattened ventral region in the juveniles; pending examination, they could belong to a new species or consist of an ecological variant of Caseyella flexisulcata. These stratigraphic occurrences subscribe to previous observations suggesting that the Mediterranean Caseyella are younger than the species group of Caseyella reesidei dating the basal upper Aptian in Mexico.

The bivalve fauna of the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) successions belonging to the Daïa and Nador mountains (NW Algeria) is taxonomically described and figured. For the first time, sixteen bivalve taxa were identified, partly in open nomenclature because of their poor state of preservation. Most taxa are represented by internal casts. The fauna was collected from two different formations of the same age: the Dolomies de Tlemcen Formation in the Daïa Mountains and the Faïdja Formation in the Nador Mountains. The lithologic characteristics of these formations, together with their fossil content and taphonomic features, confirm that these localities are characterized by marine conditions. The north-western Algerian bivalve assemblage holds the largest portion of cosmopolitan species.

The well-exposed Valanginian to Lower Hauterivian sequences of the Vocontian Basin (South-East France) are revisited based on a micropalaeontological study of material collected in the Vergol and La Charce sections. A total of 528 tests of benthic foraminifers were recorded in good state of preservation. A biometric analysis of the species Dorothia hauteriviana is proposed in order to identify its morphotypes and their biostratigraphic significance. This study aims to identify benthic foraminiferal assemblages and to propose an integrated biostratigraphy along the Valanginian to Hauterivian sequence of the Vergol and La Charce sections (Vocontian Basin). Two foraminiferal assemblages have been recognized. The Lenticulina nodosa foraminiferal assemblage ranges from the lower Valanginian to the basis of the upper Valanginian Saynoceras verrucosum ammonite standard zones (StZ). The Lenticulina busnardoi foraminiferal assemblage is recorded from the second half of S. verrucosum to the top of Neocomites peregrinus StZ. The current study shows that the Vergol and La Charce composite section represents a complete segment of Valanginian to Lower Hauterivian foraminiferal assemblages, and records several changes in taxonomic biodiversity and dynamics of population for this interval.

A new semi-aquatic bug genus of the family Mesoveliidae is described and illustrated from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber, as Cretamesovelia pellai gen. et sp. nov. This new taxon represents the second mesoveliid genus documented from the deposits of Noije Bum Hill in northern Myanmar. Together with the recently described genus Myanmarvelia, this taxon provides further insights of the past diversity of semi-aquatic bugs. The new genus is distinguished from the other mesoveliid genera by the following combination of characters: head longer than pronotum; eyes not reduced; antennae shorter than body; rostrum reaching metacoxae; presence of antennal and femoral bristles; mesonotum shorter than pronotum; posterior margin of metanotum curved; metatarsi II longest; apterous.

New material of the ammonite subfamily Cheloniceratinae Spath, 1923 is described from the Aptian successions of the Maghara area. We record Cheloniceras cornuelianum as well as Epicheloniceras tschernyschewi from the lower and upper Aptian, respectively. These very widely distributed and common species are important for the supraregional correlation, and we establish their stratigraphic range for the Gabal Lagama and Gabal Abu Ruqum key sections. A short account is given about the palaeobiogeographic significance of both species.

This manuscript describes unpublished dental and postcranial material of artiodactyls and perissodactyls from the Valbro deposits (Phosphorites from Quercy, France). It is the fifth contribution on this site. This paleokarst yielded 14 euungulate taxa with, among the artiodactyls, the dichobunid Dichobune fraasi, the entelodontid Entelodon sp., the cainotheriids Paroxacron valdense, Plesiomeryx cadurcensis, Ple. huerzeleri and Caenomeryx cf. procommunis, the gelocids Gelocus communis and Pseudogelocus scotti and the bachitheriid cf. Bachitherium sp.; and among the perissodactyls, the palaeotheriids Plagiolophus ministri and Pl. minor, the rhinocerotids Ronzotherium filholi and Epiaceratherium magnum and the eggysodontid Eggysodon osborni. The association of these species confirms an early Oligocene age (Rupelian), close to the MP22 reference level, and allows us to propose a faunal list of 72 vertebrate taxa. Among the Valbro vertebrates, euongulates are one of the most diverse groups and constitute the largest specimen collection. This abundance is essentially due to the large number of cainotheriid remains found in the deposit, and is comparable to that of rodents. Compared with contemporary European sites, the artiodactyl and perissodactyl fauna from Valbro is among the most diversified in western Europe.

Chrysididae fossils are rare and understudied compared to their extant diversity, with an overwhelming proportion of genera found in Cenozoic fossiliferous deposits currently thought to be extinct. Here, we document the oldest known representative of the extant genus Primeuchroeus Linsenmaier, 1968 based on a specimen from Priabonian (upper Eocene) Baltic amber, and described as Primeuchroeus groehni sp. nov. This finding is the oldest Chrysididae fossil indisputably attributed to an extant genus and refutes the hypothesis that modern genera are not older than Neogene in age, as hitherto believed. Additionally, we propose the reallocation of a recently described fossil genus and fossil species. The genus Sphaerocleptes Cockx et al. (2016), described in the subfamily Cleptinae from Cenomanian French amber, is transferred to Chrysidinae, tribe Elampini; this is the first temporal occurrence for the tribe, previously not known earlier than the upper Eocene. The fossil species Hedychridium rosai Brazidec and Perrichot, 2023 is transferred from the subfamily Chrysidinae to Amiseginae and we propose the new combination Atoposega rosai (Brazidec and Perrichot, 2023) comb. nov. These findings provide deep insights into the evolution of Chrysididae: within the Chrysidinae subfamily, established by the mid-Cretaceous, some of the modern generic lineages had already diverged by the upper Eocene, and the Miocene Chrysididae fauna was likely similar to the extant fauna, pending further discoveries. Based on our observations, the fossil record of Chrysididae shows more similarities to that of other diverse hymenopteran families than was previously thought.