ammonites
Aix-en-Provence (Inst. Geol. Lyon) (Oligocene of France)

Where: Bouches-Du-Rhone, France (43.5° N, 5.5° E: paleocoordinates 43.3° N, 2.8° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Niveau du gypse d'Aix Formation, Chattian (28.4 - 23.0 Ma)

• "The ‘insect formation’ is 2.5 m thick, divided in two parts that correspond to two very different environmental conditions. The first (lower) episode is remarkable by its lateral mo- notony of facies on a distance of 6 km at least, in the outcrops observed on the northwest of Aix-en-Provence. This lower episode is distinguished from the rest of the ‘insect formation’ and from the whole formation of Aix-en-Provence by the presence of a very numerous thin limestone laminae. The second (upper) episode is remarkable by the presence of many silici- fied laminae. The fauna in this level is also very well preserved"….This collection consists of unspecified layers

Environment/lithology: lacustrine - large; lithified limestone

• This lacustrine formation was deposited in a very large but shallow-water lake, with variable salinity and near the marine coast (NURY 1990, NURY & THOMASSIN 1994).
• The deposit presents an alternation of limestone and marls with gypsum.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Preservation: mold/impression, adpression

Primary reference: N. Theobald. 1937. Les insectes fossiles des terrains oligocènes de France. Bulletin Mensuel (Mémoires) de la Société des Sciences de Nancy 1:1-473 [M. Clapham/J. Karr] more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 122488: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Jered Karr on 31.12.2011

Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (attribution-noncommercial-no derivatives)