The Cenomanian amber of Anjou: Stratigraphy and palaeontology of le Brouillard and Hucheloup quarries (Ecouflant, Maine-et-Loire) [L'ambre cénomanien d'Anjou: stratigraphie et paléontologie des carrières du Brouillard et de Hucheloup (Ecouflant, Maine-et-Loire)]

摘要

The Ecouflant area (Maine-et-Loire, France) shows the last outcrops from the Anjou region that allow the study of early Cenomanian lignites and the associated amber. The quarry of Le Brouillard was historically the most studied locality, but it is now partly covered by bulky waste. No fossil arthropod has been found in the amber collected in this locality, and only a few bacterial filaments and plant fragments were detected among the microinclusions. The quarry of Hucheloup shows a wider exposure. Amber is poor, but fossil plants and bivalve are frequent. Based on the sedimentological series and the palaeontological contents of the lignitic clay, we suggest that it corresponds to estuarine to coastal depositional environments with variable salinity.