Ecological Significance of the Arthropod Fauna from the Jurassic (Callovian) La Voulte Lagerstätte

Abstract

The La Voulte Lagerstätte is remarkable for its unique soft−bodied fauna (e.g., worms, coleoid squids) and its exceptionally preserved arthropods mainly found in small sideritic concretions. This arthropod fauna includes 30 different species assigned to the crustaceans, the thylacocephalans and the pycnogonids. Crustaceans are the most diversified group with 23 species distributed in a dozen families. Quantitative analyses based on 388 nodules reveals four dominant groups: (i) the enigmatic thylacocephalan arthropods (33%), (ii) the Solenoceridae shrimps (22%), (iii) the Coleiidae crustaceans (15%), and (iv) the Penaeidae shrimps (10%

New eryonid crustaceans from the Late Jurassic Lagerstätten of Cerin (France), Canjuers (France), Wattendorf (Germany) and Zandt (Germany)

“…La Voulte; Charbonnier 2009;Charbonnier et al 2010) or rather deep water (e.g. HauteSaône; Charbonnier et al 2012b), the eryonids from European plattenkalks may represent a successful specialized branch adapted to shallow water environments.…”

First record of a polychelid lobster (Crustacea: Decapoda: Coleiidae) from the Pliensbachian (Early Jurassic) of Germany

“…Therefore, a remarkable change of their environmental requirements could have occurred in this group of lobsters, as Beurlen (1931) and Glaessner (1965) have suggested. On the other hand, we know little about Mesozoic bathyal macrofaunas; to date, only the Callovian Lagerstätte of La Voulte-sur-Rhône is recognized (or at least interpreted) as being deposited in a bathyal environment (Charbonnier, 2009;Charbonnier et al, 2010). This could mean that polychelid lobsters inhabited both bathyal and littoral environments during the Mesozoic.…”

“…Woods, 1925;Collins, 2010), the Middle Jurassic of La Voulte-sur-Rhône (e.g. Van Straelen, 1925;Charbonnier et al, 2010), and from the Early Cretaceous of northwestern Germany (Schweigert and Herd, 2010). 1925 Coleia brodiei (Woodward).…”

Calcification and Diagenesis of Bacterial Colonies

“…The investigated fossilized counterparts have been observed on the carapace of two fossil decapods (Archeosolenocera straeleni Carriol and Riou, 1991, UMPC-150 and Aeger brevirostris Van Straelen, 1923, MNHN.F.R61863) morphologically preserved in three dimensions within carbonate concretions from the Callovian Lagerstätte of La Voulte-sur-Rhône (France) (Figure 1) [34]. Although a smaller number of fossilized epibiotic structures have been observed on these fossilized shrimps compared to their modern counterparts, they cover about 5% of their surface ( Figure 1).…”

“…Here, we report the multiscale characterization of organo-mineral structures observed on the carapace of contemporary decapods (shrimps) from La Paz Bay (Mexico) as well as on fossilized counterparts from the Callovian Lagerstätte of La Voulte-sur-Rhône, France [34]. Of note, a number of studies have reported the presence of epibiotic micro-organisms, such as diatoms, cliliates and bacteria, on extant decapods [10,[35][36][37][38].…”