Retourner à Moulin Quignon

In March 1863, Jacques Boucher de Perthes found in the alluvia of Moulin Quignon (Abbeville, France) a human jaw in association with lithic artifacts and fossil bones of mammals. Quickly challenged, this discovery will appear as a fraud whose prehistorian was the victim. Since that time, the collection and the Moulin Quignon site are synonymous with an archaeological forgery. Forgotten for almost 150 years, these collections became in 2012 a research topic in the context of a program devoted to oldest settlements and Acheulean. The objective was to identify and study the whole 1863–1864 documentation set (human remains, artifacts, sediments, fauna bones, malacological remains, archives, papers, site) to allow further analysis of the whole subject.     

Le genre Nucleolites (Echinoidea, Cassiduloidea) du Bajocien à l'Oxfordien dans le Bassin de Paris : apport des données architecturales à la systématique et à la phylogénie

The classification of the Paris basin Bajocian-Oxfordian species of the genus Nucleolites is revised. A classic point of view, until now used by authors and mainly based on the general morphology of the test, is first developed. Then, this last is modified with new architectural data, which refer to the extraxial-axial theory concerning the structure of the apical system as well as the presence of supplementary and catenal plates. These architectural data are first used facing the general morphology of the test. Such approach leads to a new point of view for the classification of the species of the genus Nucleolites. The systematics is particularly significantly simplified. The deduced and proposed phylogenetic hypothesis shows that the genus Nucleolites is composed of two parallel lineages as soon as the beginning of the genus in the Bajocian: a group with a so-called “primitive” architecture, and a group with an “advanced” one. On and after the Late Callovian, the species with a primitive organisation give birth to advanced species, which continue in younger time. In this way, the genus Nucleolites may be paraphyletic since the Late Callovian onward.     

Tumeurs brunes disséminées : à propos d’un cas

We report a case of multiple brown tumours concerning a 46-year-old, operated for a parathyroid adenoma, who is presenting clinical and biological signs of hyperparathyroidism recurrence. Unusual features in this case were the disseminated distribution of brown tumour and the bone scan pseudo-metastatic aspect.     

Un nouveau gisement à ambre insectifère et à végétaux (Albien terminal probable) : Archingeay (Charente-Maritime, France)

A layer of clay interbedded in sandstone, which age is likely uppermost Albian, yielded a new deposit with amber and fossil plants in Charente-Maritime (south-west France). A survey of the arthropods found in amber, the xylologic and palynologic determinations and the sedimentologic study are in progress. We already have datas to propose a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the coast of the northern Aquitain basin at the end of lower Cretaceous : an estuarine area under warm and wet climate.