Coilopoceras inflatum Cobban and Hook, 1980, a United States Western Interior ammonite from the Upper Turonian of the southern Corbières, Aude, France

Authors

  • Patrice Melchior 9, Boulevard Challier de Néré, 13008 Marseille
  • Michel Bilotte Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, Faculté des Sciences et Ingénierie de Toulouse, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, and Service Commun d’Etudes et de Conservation des Collections Patrimoniales, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 4
  • William J. Kennedy Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW, and Department of Earth Sciences, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3AN

Keywords:

Ammonites, biostratigraphy, Turonian, Cretaceous, France

Abstract

A newly discovered ammonite faunule from the Padern region of the southern Corbières in southern France includes representatives of typical northwest European Upper Turonian species Subprionocyclus cf. neptuni (Geinitz, 1850) and Lewesiceras cf. woodi Wright 1979, tethyan/ northwestern Pacific species Phyllopachyceras cf. ezoense (Yokoyama, 1890), Anagaudryceras involvulum (Stoliczka, 1865) and, Desmoceras (Pseudouhligella) sp., together with Coilopoceras inflatum Cobban and Hook, 1980, a species previously known only from New Mexico in the United States, where it is regarded as Middle Turonian. The faunule occurs above one with Romaniceras (R.) mexicanum Jones, 1938 and Coilopoceras springeri Hyatt, 1903, also originally described from New Mexico and northern Mexico, and recently described from the Uchaux massif in Vaucluse in southern France. The records suggest that the base of the Upper Turonian may be drawn at different, higher level in the United States Western Interior than in Europe. The coming together of these mixed faunal elements may be a result of high sea levels, and changing oceanic circulation patterns.

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Published

2017-03-31