The uppermost Oligocene of Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône,Southern France): A Cenozoic brackish subtropical Konservat-Lagerstätte,with fishes,insects and plants

Aix-en-Provence is one of the most famous localities for Cenozoic fossils in Europe, known since the end of the 18th century for the exquisitely preserved fishes, insects and plant remains extracted from laminated deposits exposed in the underground quarries developed for the exploitation of the gypsum, and in some sites located inside and around the city. The Aix-en-Provence fossil assemblage includes a considerable variety of organisms that provide a well-documented evidence of the existence of a large subtropical brackish (primarily oligohaline) lagoon temporarily connected to the sea in southern France during the latest Oligocene.     

The La Voulte-sur-Rhône Lagerstätte (Middle Jurassic,France)

The La Voulte Lagerstätte (Jurassic, France) is characterized by a diverse and exceptionally well-preserved fauna. It was located along the western Tethyan margin where the submarine relief was steep. The sedimentation was dominated by marls suggesting a low energy and deep-water depositional environment. The La Voulte biota is remarkable for its biodiversity with about 60 different species. The major components are the arthropods (50% of the species), the cephalopods (10%) and the echinoderms (10%). Among the arthropods, the composition and some anatomical features suggest a relatively deep-water environment characterized by dim-light conditions. The cephalopods and other organisms (pycnogonids, asterids), have extant analogues that all live in deep-water niches always exceeding 200 m. The fauna as a whole bears the characteristic features of the present-day bathyal fauna. The La Voulte Lagerstätte may be one of the rare Jurassic Lagerstätten, if not the unique, to have fossilized a deep marine fauna.     

Triassic Conifers as the basis for stratigraphical correlation

Floras with abundant Conifers have been recentlydiscovered in Siberia and China. They are correlated with the floras of the Voltzia sandstones of Western Europe.     

Representatives of the genus Fabaeformiscandona Krstič, 1972 (Crustacea,Ostracoda) from Quaternary deposits of Western Siberia

The present paper deals with the study of the Ostracode species of subfamily Candoninae Kaufmann, 1900 from the Quaternary deposits of Western Siberia. The main goal is to reassess their generic affiliation based on their morphological features. The Siberian forms mentioned by Kazmina (1968, 1975, 1989) as Candona caudata and C. fabaeformis should be assigned to the genus Fabaeformiscandona. Shells classified by Kazmina as Candona rectangulata Alm are referred to Fabaeformiscandona balatonica Daday (Konovalova, 2012b). For the first time in the Pleistocene deposits of Western Siberia, species Fabaeformiscandona aff. hyalina (Brady et Robertson) and Fabaeformiscandona holzkampfi Hartwig were encountered, along with Fabaeformiscandona harmsworthi (Scott).     

Early Tithonian entactinarian Radiolaria from the Solnhofen area (southern Germany). Part I

The article describes part of the Entactinaria radiolarians from a very rich and well-preserved radiolarian assemblage extracted from a lower Tithonian sample (Mue 22) collected from the Mühlheim Member of the Mörnsheim Formation of southern Germany. With a single exception (genus Odoghertites nov. gen.), all other Entactinaria described are of primitive type, that is their initial spicules are not differentiated into an apical and a basal group and are not connected by arches to form a heteropolar “microsphere”. They have been assigned to five families, four of which are new (Isometractiniidae, Triumbraculidae, Hollandocachoniidae, Odoghertitidae), 10 new genera (Isometractinia, Triumbraculum, Tardentactinia, Lententactinia, Hollandocachonia, Sphaerentofurca, Stylentofurca, Zuegelifurca, Spongentofurca, Odoghertites), and 19 new species. One of the new species comes from the lower Bajocian of Oregon. A new skeletal structural term, support structure, is introduced as a special type of connection between the primary spines and the macrosphere or cortical shell.     

The first juvenile specimen of Eolacerta (Squamata: Eolacertidae) from the early–middle Eocene of the Messel Pit (Germany)

We describe the first juvenile specimen of an eolacertid lizard. The material comes from one of the most important Eocene localities, the Messel Pit in Germany. The new specimen provides unique information on the early ontogeny of Eolacerta, the largest known lizard from Messel, with a maximum snout-vent length greater than 30 cm and a mass approaching 1 kg. The specimen described here, with a SVL of 11.3 cm and an estimated mass of 21 g, can be allocated more precisely to Eolacerta robusta based on the co-occurrence and the combination of following features: (1) the nasal process of premaxilla is long; (2) position of lacrimal (being more anteriorly located in Stefanikia siderea); (3) the postorbital process of jugal is broad; (4) the ratio of the anterior and posterior region of the frontal between the sulcus interfacialis; (5) a mid-parietal constriction of the parietal table is present; (6) the interparietal shield broadens anteriorly; (7) the transverse sulcus is straight anteriorly. The incipient character of the parietal constriction and the slightly lower number of maxillary teeth (28 vs. 30–32 in adults) are consistent with a juvenile animal. Very important is evidence for the presence of pterygoid dentition (pointed teeth arranged in a single line) and the absence of palatine dentition. Ceratobranchial I is observed for the first time for this species, and its shape and length are very similar to those of Lacertidae. There are 27 presacral vertebrae in the juvenile, as in adults. In the juvenile specimen, ventral keel on the centrum is present in all vertebrae. The ventromedial portion of the ischium is well preserved here and gives information on the exact shape of this portion, at least in juvenile form. The scalation, as far as it is preserved, is similar to that of Stefanikia, except that the rectangular subdigital scales are longer in comparison with their width, and therefore have a broader appearance.     

La religiosité au Paléolithique

During the oldest periods of the Palaeolithic, evidence of distinct behaviours related to technicity, hunting and settlement patterns is difficult to clearly interpret. Yet such evidence increases from the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic, with the appearance of the first incontestable burials and symbolic representations, in the form of collected shells and colorants. With the Upper Palaeolithic, the archaeological record is more abundant. It is then possible to address spiritual aspects, the component of non-technological human behaviour beyond subsistence, lithic reduction or hafting techniques. Figurative art appears, in both mobile and parietal form, the iconography and organisation of which are structured. Painted caves seem to have been places for ritual practices in addition to having been selected for art alone. Evidence of visits and archaeological deposits reflect a space for possible exchanges between the human and spirit worlds in the framework of an animist world view. In the religious domain, such data allow the reconstruction of some elements of mythical thought, analogous to that described by ethnologists and historians of religions in other contexts. Their study does not allow precise recovery of the myths themselves, but rather consideration of their existence and structuring function within these prehistoric societies.     

Réflexion sur la coexistence de flores hygrophile,mésophile et mésoxérophile durant le Paléozoïque Supérieur en Euramérie

At the end of Namurian A, in Eurameria, we see agreat change in the composition of the flora, probably instigated by a great modification in the climatic conditions. This flora adapted to very humid places persist during whole the Westphalian and up to the end of Stephanian where it is relayed by a mesoxerophytic flora of which the most typical elements are the Coniferales of the family Lebachiaceae. This «autunian flora is usualy considered as subsequent to the stephanian hygrophytic flora and as the transition to the permian flora which is determined by a new modification of the general climatic conditions.Some observations about the macroflora and about the microflora lead to prove the coexistence of hygrophytic, mesophytic and mesoxerophytic floras, not only during the upper Stephanian but also during Westphalian and Namurian B and C. So, from Devonian to Permian, in Eurameria, there was probably continuity of a mesoxerophytic and mesophytic type floras on which was superimposed during the upper Carboniferous an hygrophytic flora adapted to the swamps surrounding the coal-lakes and coal-lagoon. The time of the appearance of Coniferales is older as we think usually.     

New giant penguin bones from Antarctica: Systematic and paleobiological significance

A tarsometatarsus and a fragmented humerus of striking dimensions recently collected in the Late Eocene locality DPV 13/84 Submeseta Formation-level 38 Submeseta II-, Seymour (Marambio) Island, Antarctic Peninsula were both assigned to Palaeeudyptes klekowskii. According to estimates, the tarsometatarsus would belong to the largest and most massive penguin described so far. This bird was probably a piscivorous penguin, with high diving ability for catching prey. Although the humerus is not an appropriate element for body mass or body length assessments, it also belonged to a huge penguin.     

The geographical and chronological pattern of herpetofaunal Pleistocene extinctions on the Iberian Peninsula

Despite the postulation of the “herpetofaunal stability hypothesis”, which suggests that the herpetofauna underwent relatively few changes during the Pleistocene, the amphibian and squamate faunas of western Europe are known to have progressively diminished during the Pliocene and the beginning of the Pleistocene. Iberian Early Pleistocene sites continue to document the presence of “exotic” herpetofaunal elements that are supposed to have disappeared from the mainland, such as Oriental vipers, agamid lizards, the anguids Pseudopus and Dopasia, and a representative of the green toad group (Bufo viridis sensu lato), as well as possibly gekkonids, a scincid lizard (Lygosominae), the anguid Ragesaurus and blind snake (Scolecophidia). The geographical and temporal pattern of these progressive southward withdrawals and extirpations on the Iberian Peninsula shows that extirpation events occurred in northern Spain at roughly the Olduvai paleomagnetic event and in southern Spain just before the Jaramillo paleomagnetic reversal, thus permitting us to establish a framework that can be used to complement the biochronological zonation of the Iberian Early Pleistocene.     

The Miocene mammal record of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia)

The land mammal record of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (Catalonia, NE Spain) ranges from the early Miocene (Ramblian) to the late Miocene (Turolian), that is from about 20 to 7 Ma. Here we present an updated review of the mammal succession focusing on biochronology as well as on environmental and faunal changes. Based on faunal similarities with central Europe, we interpret this basin as a transitional zone between the forested environments of northern regions and the more arid landscapes of the inner Iberian Peninsula. The quality of the Vallès-Penedès record and its chronostratigraphic control is clearly better for the late Aragonian and the Vallesian (between 12.6–9.0 Ma), especially for small mammals. Therefore, we analyze small mammal diversity dynamics during this interval. Contrary to previous analyses, which found an abrupt extinction event coinciding with the early/late Vallesian boundary (the Vallesian Crisis), our results show that this pattern is due to uneven sampling. Instead, taxonomic richness slowly decreased since the late Vallesian as a result of a series of extinctions that mostly affected forest-dwelling taxa.     

Les vertébrés du Berriasiende Canjuers (Var,France) et leur environnement

The vertebrate fossil locality of Canjuers correspondsto a protected marine environment near an emersive zone, on the shelf of Middle Verdon, in communication with the open sea (toward the North) through channels. The fishes (carnivorous pelagic and planctonivorous pelagic) are the most abundant vertebrates. They were already dead when they reached the depositional area, together with the floated shells of ammonites. The necton, dependent on the bottom for its food and the fixed benthos are nearly absent. The free and sessile benthos, poor in species, shows adaptations to a muddy bottom and rare forms adapted to a hardened bottom. The microfauna is rare. The infauna (essentially horizontal) is present inside the channels. The water temperature, the very low hydrodynamism and the lack of infauna imply difficult conditions on the bottom (micrite beds and laminites in the lower part of the deposit). Tridactyle tracks of vertebrates confirm, on the other hand, the feeble depth of the water. The near supratidal zone was more or less colonised by vegetation and was occupied by a very differentiated reptilian fauna (flying forms, continental running and burrowing forms, swimming forms) corresponding to a continental environment. The biotic and abiotic factors show the occurence of four distinct environments: protected low depth marine, channels, supratidalintertidal and pure marine. The taphonomy corroborates that the deposit was a thanatocoenosis for the marine organisms, except when water movement permitted life.