Taphonomy of the Paris amber and its inclusions, Eocene of France

PETRULEVICIUS, J. F, DEPLOËG, G, NEL, A.

Pretoria

Congreso; III International Congress on Palaeoentomology, II International Meeting on Paleoarthropodology y III International Congress on amber; 2005

South African National Biodiversity Institute

In 1996, the finding by the second author of a new Paris amber site, made possible the prospecting and collection in situ (without biases) of a very rich and mainly unexplored amber layer. Amber comes from the locality of Le Quesnoy near Houdancourt. The age of this amber is considered to be Ypresian (early Eocene) in accord to recent publications (co-authored by the third author). The aim of this work is to make a preliminary study of the functional taphonomy of Paris amber; to describe the material collected at Le Quesnoy and to interpret the different taphonomical phases (biostratinomy and fossildiagenesis) involved in the formation of this amber and its inclusions. Fossil resin is preserved in spherical drops, stalactites, irregular pieces, and inside wood. This latter type of preservation allowed determining (in a recent publication co-authored by the second author) the producer tree as a Caesalpiniacea similar to the Detarieae tribe. Fossil inclusions are immersed (totally or partly) or imprinted in surface. Traces include signals of movement, spider?s nets and its preys. From 5127-recorded specimens, insects represent about the 89% of all fossil animals, along with myriapods, spiders, pseudoscorpions, mites, tardigrads, and vertebrates.