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Silicified plant megafossils from the upper Turonian of Vienne, western France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2018

Bernard Gomez*
Affiliation:
CNRS-UMR 5276 Terre, Planètes, Environnement, Université Lyon 1 (Claude Bernard), 2, rue Raphaël Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France. Email: bernard.gomez@univ-lyon1.fr
Véronique Daviero-Gomez
Affiliation:
CNRS-UMR 5276 Terre, Planètes, Environnement, Université Lyon 1 (Claude Bernard), 2, rue Raphaël Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France. Email: bernard.gomez@univ-lyon1.fr
Géraldine Garcia
Affiliation:
PALEVOPRIM, CNRS-UMR7262, Université de Poitiers, 6, rue Michel Brunet, F-86073 Poitiers, France.
Laurent Caner
Affiliation:
IC2MP HydrASA, UMR7285 CNRS, Université de Poitiers, 5, rue Albert Turpain, F-86073 Poitiers, France.
Anaïs Boura
Affiliation:
CR2P, MNHN, Sorbonne Université – Paris 6, CNRS, 57, rue Cuvier, CP 48, F-75005 Paris, France.
Abel Barral
Affiliation:
CNRS-UMR 5276 Terre, Planètes, Environnement, Université Lyon 1 (Claude Bernard), 2, rue Raphaël Dubois, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France. Email: bernard.gomez@univ-lyon1.fr
Patrice Cantinolle
Affiliation:
154 Avenue Jean Mermoz, F-86100 Châtellerault, France.
Xavier Valentin
Affiliation:
PALEVOPRIM, CNRS-UMR7262, Université de Poitiers, 6, rue Michel Brunet, F-86073 Poitiers, France. PALAIOS Research Association, 15 rue de l'Aumônerie, F-86300 Valdivienne, France.
*
*Corresponding author

Abstract

A new locality with silicified permineralised plant megafossils is reported from the upper Turonian of Colombiers, Vienne, western France. The plant fossil assemblage consists of Geinitzia reichenbachii (Geinitz) Hollick et Jeffrey and ‘Lomatopteris' superstes Saporta. Whilst G. reichenbachii is a worldwide widespread Cretaceous conifer, ‘L.' superstes is reported in western France for the first time. The latter fossil shows bipinnately compound leaf, marginal teeth, one thick primary vein, pinnate secondary veins and faint, reticulate, narrower veins. Besides its fern-like gross morphology, these characters indicate that it most likely belongs to angiosperms and eudicots. The formation of silicified nodules bearing such fossils from the Cenomanian to the Coniacian of western France was previously attributed to the secondary silicification of limestones during Cenozoic climatic weathering episodes. However, based on both petrography and preservation evidence, we demonstrate that it was an endogenic process contemporaneous to the earliest stages of fossil diagenesis created by palaeoenvironmental and climatic conditions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2018 

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