Amber usually contains inclusions of terrestrial and rarely limnetic organisms that were embedded in the places were they lived in the amber forests. Therefore, it has been supposed that amber could not have preserved marine organisms. Here, we report the discovery amber-preserved marine microfossils. Diverse marine diatoms as well as radiolarians, sponge spicules, a foraminifer, and a spine of a larval echinoderm were found in Late Albian and Early Cenomanian amber samples of southwestern France. The highly fossiliferous resin samples solidified Ϸ100 million years ago on the floor of coastal mixed forests dominated by conifers. The amber forests of southwestern France grew directly along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and were influenced by the nearby sea: shells and remnants of marine organisms were probably introduced by wind, spray, or high tide from the beach or the sea onto the resin flows.Cretaceous ͉ palaeoecology ͉ taphonomy ͉ fossil resin ͉ SW France

Distance correlations of Late Tortonian-Messinian littoral carbonate complexes are proposed from the study of eight platforms in the western and central Mediterranean. Correlations are based on the identification of two major biological sedimentary cycles and of two index surfaces. Surface A is a maximum flooding surface during cycle 1 at around 6.7 Ma. Surface B is a regional marine planation surface at around 5.95 Ma, at the base of cycle 2 (Terminal Carbonate Complex). A general sedimentary model is proposed for the 7-5.6-Ma time-span. The boundary between cycles 1 and 2 is coincident with the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, and appears to be related to major environmental-paleooceanographic changes in the Mediterranean, rather than to a major sea-level drop or to climatic change.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The origin of the diatom still remains enigmatic. Their fossil record is scarce until the Late Cretaceous and great divergences exist between molecular data and the early fossil evidences. While molecular data indicate an origin during the Triassic or Lower Jurassic, early fossil evidences are only from the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. The discovery of diatoms in French mid-Cretaceous amber by the end of the 2000’s already questioned a potential bias in diatom fossil record as it made older many diatom lineages known before by the end of the Cretaceous only. Thai amber allows the discovery of a new diatom specimen that has been attributed to the genus Hemiaulus. This material is difficult to date, but fossil assemblages and sedimentological data indicate that Thai amber and its Hemiaulus specimen are Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous in age. This discovery extended the fossil record of the bipolar diatoms and of the genus Hemiaulus of several dozens of millions years and brings closer the fossil evidences and molecular data (that estimated an origin of the bipolar diatoms at around 150 Ma ago). It reinforces the hypothesis of a pre-Cretaceous fossil diatom record and also supports an origin of the diatoms in shallow coastal environments.

No abstract

Des grains millimétriques d'ambre sont associés à des débris ligniteux dans la série marine du Santonien de Belcodène (Bouches du Rhône, France). Il s'agit surtout de grains en forme de goutte, jaunes à rougeâtres, plus ou moins transparents. Ils révèlent la présence de divers micro-organismes appartenant à des procaryotes (bactéries, actinomycètes) ou des eucaryotes (champignons) décrits ici pour la première fois. Ces microorganismes constituent parfois des croûtes à la périphérie des grains d'ambre et se sont développés de manière centripète dans la résine encore fluide. Le milieu de dépôt de l'ambre était ouvert sur des influences marines, tandis que le milieu de formation des coulées de résine était une forêt côtière constituée essentiellement d'angiospermes.