Sea-level events during the Early Cretaceous in Western Europe

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 527-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Ruffell
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Western Europe

Description of two new fossil echinoids (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) from the Early Hauterivian (Early Cretaceous) of the Paris Basin (France)

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3512 (1) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS SAUCÈDE ◽  
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE DUDICOURT ◽  
PHILIPPE COURVILLE
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Benthic Invertebrates ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Equal Proportion ◽  
Paris Basin ◽  
Time Period ◽  
High Level

Two new echinoid genera and species, Salvaster roberti gen. et sp. nov. and Pygolampas edita gen. et sp. nov. are de-scribed. They were collected in the Calcaires à Spatangues Formation (CSF) that consists of limestone and clay sedimentsdeposited in the southeast of the Paris Basin (France) during the Early Hauterivian (Early Cretaceous). The CSF is datedfrom the Acanthodiscus radiatus chronozone, a time-interval of overall high sea level in Western Europe, but it yields arich shallow-water fossil fauna mostly represented by benthic invertebrates. Of the 54 echinoid species ever described inthe CSF, 26 species are recognized here. They are distributed into 16 different families, among which regular (13 species)and irregular (13 species) echinoids are represented in equal proportion. This work confirms the high level of echinoid diversity in the CSF for that time-period.

Revision of Tenticospirifer Tien, 1938, and similar spiriferid brachiopod genera from the Late Devonian (Frasnian) of Eurasia, North America, and Australia

2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueping Ma ◽  
Jed Day
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
South China ◽  
North American ◽  
Type Species ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Carbonate Platforms ◽  
The North ◽  
New Family

The cyrtospiriferid brachiopod genus Tenticospirifer Tien, 1938, is revised based on restudy of the type species from the Frasnian (Late Devonian) of the Russian Platform. As revised the genus includes cyrtospiriferid species with pyramidal ventral valves, catacline ventral interareas, a narrow delthyrium, few sinal plications, and lack a median dorsal septum and pseudodeltidium. All species retained in the genus are of Givetian and Frasnian age. All Famennian age species described from South China and North America are rejected from the genus. It appears that Tenticospirifer evolved during the early Givetian in western Europe and remained endemic to that region during the remainder of the Givetian. Successive migrations of Tenticospirifer from eastern Laurussia to North America, then to South China and possibly Australia, coincided with middle and late Frasnian eustatic sea level rises, respectively. The North American species Spirifera cyrtinaformis Hall and Whitfield, 1872, and related species identified as Tenticospirifer by North American workers, are reassigned to Conispirifer Lyashenko, 1985. Its immigration to and widespread dispersal in carbonate platforms of western Laurussia, northern Gondwana and tropical island arcs (?) coincided with a major late Frasnian eustatic sea level rise. The new family Conispiriferidae is proposed with Conispirifer Lyashenko, 1985, selected as the type genus. The new family also includes the new genus Pyramidaspirifer with Platyrachella alta Fenton and Fenton, 1924, proposed as the type species. The affinity of the new family remains uncertain pending restudy of key genera currently included in the Superfamily Cyrtospiriferoidea. Available data from the Devonian brachiopod literature indicate that species of Pyramidaspirifer are restricted to late Frasnian deposits of central and western North America.

The Neolithic quarries of Mont Viso, Piedmont, Italy: initial radiocarbon dates

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pétrequin ◽  
Michel Errera ◽  
Anne-Marie Pétrequin ◽  
Pierre Allard
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Paris Basin ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
French Jura ◽  
The Alps

Two groups of quarries (Mont Viso and Mont Beigua, Italy) were the source of the Alpine axeheads that circulated throughout western Europe during the Neolithic. The quarries on Mont Viso (Oncino: Porco, Bulè and Milanese), discovered in 2003, have been radiocarbon-dated, and this has revealed that the exploitation of jadeites, omphacitites and eclogites at high altitude (2000–2400 m above sea level) seems to have reached its apogee in the centuries around 5000 BC. The products, in the form of small axe- and adze-heads, were distributed beyond the Alps from the beginning of the fifth millennium, a few being found as far away as the Paris Basin, 550 km from their source as the crow flies. However, it was not until the mid-fifth millennium BC that long axeheads from Mont Viso appeared in the hoards and monumental tombs of the Morbihan, 800 km from the quarries. Production continued until the beginning of the third millennium BC, but at this time the distribution of the products was less extensive, and the process of distribution operated in a different way: tools made from jadeite and eclogite are still found in the French Jura, but the extraction sites at the south-east foot of Mont Viso no longer seem to have been used. The variability in the geographical extent of the distribution at different times seems to be related to the social context of exploitation of the high-altitude quarries, which were only ever accessible for a few months each year.

scholarly journals A new Holocene relative sea-level curve for western Brittany (France): Insights on isostatic dynamics along the Atlantic coasts of north-western Europe

2015 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 341-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Goslin ◽  
Brigitte Van Vliet Lanoë ◽  
Giorgio Spada ◽  
Sarah Bradley ◽  
Lev Tarasov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Level Curve ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
North Western

scholarly journals Early Cretaceous Angiosperm Invasion of Western Europe and Major Environmental Changes

2007 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Coiffard ◽  
B. Gomez ◽  
F. Thevenard
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Environmental Changes

Enigmatic Early Cretaceous ootaxa from Western Europe with signals of extrinsic eggshell degradation

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 617-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Moreno-Azanza ◽  
José Ignacio Canudo ◽  
José Manuel Gasca
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Western Europe

scholarly journals A turiasaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Wealden Supergroup of the United Kingdom

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6348
Author(s):  
Philip D. Mannion
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Neural Spine ◽  
Faunal Turnover ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk

The Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundary, 145 million years ago, has long been recognised as an extinction event or faunal turnover for sauropod dinosaurs, with many ‘basal’ lineages disappearing. However, recently, a number of ‘extinct’ groups have been recognised in the Early Cretaceous, including diplodocids in Gondwana, and non-titanosauriform macronarians in Laurasia. Turiasauria, a clade of non-neosauropod eusauropods, was originally thought to have been restricted to the Late Jurassic of western Europe. However, its distribution has recently been extended to the Late Jurassic of Tanzania (Tendaguria tanzaniensis), as well as to the Early Cretaceous of the USA (Mierasaurus bobyoungi and Moabosaurus utahensis), demonstrating the survival of another ‘basal’ clade across the J/K boundary. Teeth from the Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous of western Europe and North Africa have also tentatively been attributed to turiasaurs, whilst recent phylogenetic analyses recovered Late Jurassic taxa from Argentina and China as further members of Turiasauria. Here, an anterior dorsal centrum and neural arch (both NHMUK 1871) from the Early Cretaceous Wealden Supergroup of the UK are described for the first time. NHMUK 1871 shares several synapomorphies with Turiasauria, especially the turiasaurs Moabosaurus and Tendaguria, including: (1) a strongly dorsoventrally compressed centrum; (2) the retention of prominent epipophyses; and (3) an extremely low, non-bifid neural spine. NHMUK 1871 therefore represents the first postcranial evidence for Turiasauria from European deposits of Early Cretaceous age. Although turiasaurs show clear heterodont dentition, only broad, characteristically ‘heart’-shaped teeth can currently be attributed to Turiasauria with confidence. As such, several putative turiasaur occurrences based on isolated teeth from Europe, as well as the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Africa, cannot be confidently referred to Turiasauria. Unequivocal evidence for turiasaurs is therefore restricted to the late Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous of western Europe, the Late Jurassic of Tanzania, and the late Early Cretaceous of the USA, although remains from elsewhere might ultimately demonstrate that the group had a near-global distribution.

scholarly journals Evolutionary relationships of atoposaurid crocodyliforms and evidence for allopatric speciation driving their high diversity in the late jurassic of europe

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Tennant ◽  
Philip D. Mannion
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Allopatric Speciation ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
High Diversity

Atoposaurid crocodylomorphs represent an important faunal component of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Laurasian semi-aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems. Despite being consistently recovered at the base of Neosuchia, the major crocodylomorph lineage leading to extant crocodilians, their species-level taxonomy and inter-relationships remain poorly understood. We present a systematic taxonomic review of the group, noting numerous anatomical differences between specimens from geographically discrete localities in the Late Jurassic of western Europe. In particular, we recognise a new species of Alligatorellus from Germany, previously referred to the contemporaneous French taxon Alligatorellus beaumonti, and synonymise the sympatric Alligatorium paintenense with Alligatorium franconicum. A comprehensive species-level phylogenetic analysis of unambiguous atoposaurids (15 OTUs and 450 characters) recovers a clade comprising Alligatorellus, Alligatorium, Atoposaurus, and Montsecosuchus.Theriosuchus is shown to represent a monophyletic, diverse, and long-lived genus that forms the sister taxon to this clade of atoposaurids. The poorly known Theriosuchus grandinaris, from the Early Cretaceous of Thailand, is excluded from this grouping and is instead positioned at the base of Atoposauridae, although this likely reflects its incomplete nature. Incorporation of putative atoposaurids, such as Karatausuchus from the Late Jurassic of Kazakhstan, will be crucial in clarifying these relationships. Our revision of atoposaurids leads us to recognise the existence of three sympatric genera in the Late Jurassic of western Europe, with a distinct species of Alligatorellus, Alligatorium, and Atoposaurus present in both French and German basins. This high diversity of closely related species might have been caused by allopatric speciation, driven by fluctuating highstand sea-levels during an interval when western Europe formed an island archipelago system. It is possible that the small body size of atoposaurids resulted from island dwarfing during this interval, but testing of this idea will have to await the discovery of more basal forms from non-island settings.

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