Abstract:  The Aralar Mountains located in northern Spain exposes a 983-m-thick succession of sediments of Early Aptian age. The lithological succession evolves from lutites, marls, and calcarenites of the Errenaga Formation to rudist micritic limestones of the Sarastarri Formation, and finally marls, lutites, and sandstones of the Lareo Formation. Based on ammonite assemblage faunas, the Deshayesites oglanlensis, D. weissi, D. deshayesi, and Dufrenoyia furcata biozones have been identified. A transition between the deshayesi and furcata zones with the co-occurrence of the ammonite genera Deshayesites and Dufrenoyia is described in the Aralar succession and is currently unique. The ammonites are described here and correlations are made with other Tethyan regions.

 Abstract:  The genus Xenobrochus, with the type species Gryphus africanus Cooper, 1973, was erected for short-looped brachiopods of small size, rectimarginate and having a loop with anteriorly convex transverse band. A new species of Xenobrochus, X. norfolkensis sp. nov. has been identified in the material collected during the French cruises SMIB 8, NORFOLK 1 and NORFOLK 2 to the Norfolk Ridge, New Caledonia, SW Pacific. This species differs from those hitherto described in the absence of cardinal process and relatively wide outer hinge plates. The genus, represented now by nine species, has a distribution restricted to the Indian Ocean and West Pacific.

 Abstract:  A chevron bone from a Lower Bathonian oolitic limestone in the Ardennes (NE France) is referred to the sauropod dinosaur Cetiosaurus Owen, previously known from the Middle Jurassic of England, on the basis of its rod-like distal end. This is the first well attested occurrence of Cetiosaurus in France. The presence of Cetiosaurus remains in the Bathonian of both Oxfordshire and the Ardennes is explainable by the fact that these regions were situated on the margin of the London-Brabant Massif land area, on which sauropod populations apparently lived. Contrary to the condition observed in other sauropods found in insular environments, there is no evidence of dwarfism in Cetiosaurus from the London-Brabant Massif, probably because this emergent area was connected to the much larger Fenno-Scandian Shield.

 Abstract:  Although the walls of most serpulid tubes are homogeneous, tubes of certain species may contain up to four ultrastructurally distinct layers. Some of these layers are made of densely packed large crystals and others are composed of sparsely packed fine crystals. In almost all (16 of 17) examined species having layered tubes, the dense layer is located in the outer wall part and the layer(s) composed of fine and relatively sparsely packed crystals are positioned in the inner wall part. Two species have transparent tube walls made entirely of densely packed crystals. Fossil serpulid tubes with dense outer layers (DOL) are known from the Late Cretaceous (Pentaditrupa subtorquata) and the Eocene (Pyrgopolon cf. mellevillei and Rotularia spirulaea). DOL gives a characteristic smooth shiny appearance to the tube surface and presumably evolved as an adaptation against drilling predation by gastropods and to delay shell dissolution in the waters of the deep-sea under-saturated with calcium carbonate.

 Abstract:  The identification of some twenty ammonite fragments from oil wells drilled in offshore Abu Dhabi revealed the presence of six Aptian genera: Cheloniceras, Epicheloniceras, Gargasiceras, Colombiceras, Pseudohaploceras, and Macroscaphites. These ammonites indicate the Furcata Zone and the succeeding Martini Zone. The Gargasian age of the upper part (HST) of the Shu'aiba as well as that of the whole of the Bab are thus firmly established.

 Abstract:  Variation in the characteristics (color, morphology) of clinopyroxene grains (CPX) in alluvial deposits and other surficial formations in the Loire valley, the Gâtinais and the Beauce show that many are pristine and come directly from recent volcanic eruptions, whereas weathered grains, clearly reworked, come from erosion of Cenozoic and Pleistocene volcanic rocks of the French Massif Central. After deposition, the CPX have been increasingly altered by longer exposures. Weathering of brown CPX yields paler minerals which are greenish-brown, colourless or two-coloured. Similarly, the CPX found in the Seine basin are from recent volcanic ash or old Sologne deposits, and not from Loire alluvial deposits, so that a Pleistocene palaeo-Loire-Seine river is improbable.

 Abstract:  Two road cuts at Doux and Pamproux in the Department of Deux Sèvres (Poitoux, France) exposed the base of the middle Oxfordian (Plicatilis Zone). Only the Pamproux section (on the Pampr'oeuf factory site) was studied in detail. There, the Plicatilis Zone is represented only by the Antecedens sudzone. Collections were made in situ and from rubble consisting solely of marls from the Antecedens Sub-zone. Sediment washing resulted in the collection of a very large number of very diversified and extremely small fossils. So a great number of individuals of two new species of Taramelliceratinae were discovered, along with two new species of "Glochiceras", their adult forms very different in size, resembling nothing so much as Ochetoceras (Ochetoceras) canaliculatum (von Buch, 1831) in the morph subclausum [m] Oppel, 1863. The sub-family Taramelliceratinae dominates the ammonite fauna.

 Abstract:  The Archaeocyatha are a key group in several of the many discrete disciplines that together make feasible a valid history of the Earth: they are the oldest of the calcified sponges, the first metazoans to build reefs (in association with calcimicrobes), are characteristic fossils used for the biozonation of the first, pre-trilobitic Cambrian stage (Tommotian)… To date, a valid key to their identification has not been available, so a tool for that purpose has been devised: it was created using the software XPER², and is now available free, online. Published in English, the knowledge base includes the 307 valid described genera identified by 120 descriptors (85 morphological and ontogenetic, 8 stratigraphic and geographic and 27 taxonomic). A key to identification is supplemented by detailed descriptive cards with images of type specimens of each genus and details of their morphology that aid identification.

 Abstract:  An outcrop with non-marine ostracods in the Early Eocene of Djebel Amour, an outcrop well dated by a rich charophyta microflora characterizing the Peckichara disermas Zone of the Early Eocene (Lower Ypresian = Ilerdian), has yielded an interesting non-marine ostracode fauna in the Djebel Amour, Western Saharian Atlas, in Algeria. This fauna is characterized by the dominance of the genus Neocyprideis with the new species Neocyprideis meguerchiensis nov. sp., and the occasional occurrence of the genera Hemicyprideis, Perissocytheridea (P. algeriensis nov. sp.) and Limnocythere. It is the second discovery of the genus Neocyprideis in the Palaeogene of the African continent, the first one being in the Early Eocene of Senegal. The Neocyprideis are represented by 75 % of smooth and normally calcified carapaces, 20 % by reticulate-noded specimens and 5 % of only reticulate forms. This polymorphism suggests a marked seasonality with fluctuating salinity. The dominance of smooth and well calcified morphs indicates an environment with an equilibrium Ca⁺⁺ / Mg⁺⁺, the reticulate morphs characterizing waters richer in Mg⁺⁺. The presence of noded-reticulate forms suggests seasonal influxes of organo-siliceous material from the continent and a salinity which could temporarily reach values lower or equal to 5 psu.

 Abstract:   A quantitative and qualitative study of the ostracods from the SG1 and BSC2 cores of El-Guettiate Sebkha of Skhira (southeastern Tunisia) has allowed the identification of different associations and the reconstruction of the Holocene palaeoenvironments. Ostracods, rich in species, provide three associations: (i) a marine association containing Aurila prasina Barbieto-Gonzalez, 1971, Cushmanidea elongata (Brady, 1868), Urocythereis oblonga (Brady, 1866), U. favosa (Roemer, 1838) (coastal marine), Basselerites berchoni (Brady, 1869), Semicytherura incongruens (G.W. Müller, 1894), S. paradoxa (G.W. Müller, 1894), S. sella (Sars, 1866), S. ruggierii (Pucci, 1955), Carinocythereis carinata (Roemer, 1838) and Paracytheridea depressa (G.W. Müller, 1894) (open marine); (ii) lagoonal association, of variable salinity, comprising Xestoleberis aurantia (Baird, 1838), Leptocythere fabaeformis (G.W. Müller, 1894) and Cytherois fischeri (Sars, 1866); (iii) brackish estuarine association subject to estuarine influence as indicated by Cyprideis torosa (Jones, 1850) and Loxoconcha elliptica Brady, 1868. The ostracods from El-Guettiate Sebkha allow us to recognize discrete palaeoenvironments that can be grouped in three phases: i) the first (6595 ± 120 - 6055 ± 30 years BP) begins with an open lagoon rich in marine ostracods followed by an estuarine lagoon (towards 6595 years BP) characterized by the richness of brackish ostracods and high energy. In the last lagoonal environment (installed towards 6055 years BP), brackish species are dominant and associated with lagoonal taxa; ii) the second phase (6055 ± 30 years BP - 5150 ± 30 years BP) is an estuarine lagoon, subject to a large marine influence in which brackish marine and lagoonal species are present in the same percentages. In this environment, littoral drift currents were responsible for the genesis of sand spits, the termination of environments and the dominance of brackish-water ostracods; iii) The last phase (5150 ± 50 years BP - recent) represents a restricted lagoon (about 5150 years BP) and finally a brackish lagoon evolved towards the sebkha environment under investigation here. This phase includes an unstable period with washover deposits resulting from an extreme climatic event.

 Abstract:  In order to comprehend the difficulty of dating marine strata using samples of mollusks shells and in an attempt to establish criteria that help in judging the validity of a ²³⁰Th /²³⁴U age determination, we present here the results of a radioactive element analysis of some 80 samples of mollusk shells. The shells were taken from fossil marine beaches between 4 and 8 meters above current sea level. When compared with the Egyptian shore of the Red Sea these levels are taken to be related to climate stage 5 dated as about 122,000 years ago. The ages obtained are often rejuvenated regardless of site, the incidence of calcite, the amount of uranium and the relationships of ²³⁴U/²³⁸U.
Unlike coral,  mineralogical criteria cannot be used to select mollusk shells unaffected by recrystallization, for present-day shells may be composed of aragonite, others are calcitic, and others contain both minerals. In any case, the rules concerning their effects of composition on radioactivity are as yet poorly understood. With these problems in mind, we made multiple analyses on several species of of mollusks, always collected from the same sites, in order to understand progressive changes in the process of age rejuvenation and to attempt eventually to determine systematic criteria providing information on the validity of the calculated age. Possible mechanisms that may influence the incorporation of uranium in rejuvenation have been conceived and are discussed.

 Abstract:  This work is a reply to the paper of Bert et alii (2010) who contested the validity of the genus Barrancyloceras and its type species. The answers and precisions brought up herein deal with:

• the nomenclatural status of Barrancyloceras barremense (Kilian, 1895);
• the nomenclatural status of the genus Barrancyloceras Vermeulen, 2000;
• the understanding of the species Barrancyloceras barremense (Kilian, 1895);
• the value, as a subzone index species of subzone, of Barrancyloceras barremense and B. alpinum.

 Abstract:  Most known serpulid tube ultrastructures in contact with an organic inner tube lining do not show the direction in which they developed. But spherulitic prismatic structures found in the innermost part of the tube wall of Recent Crucigera websteri, C. zygophora, Floriprotis sabiuraensis, and Pyrgopolon ctenactis indicate that the structure grew toward the organic inner tube lining and also toward the tube's lumen. Similar directions of growth for this structure are seen in Hydroides sp. from the Miocene of Austria. Growth towards the tube's lumen is opposite to what one would expect if the organic inner tube lining is being used as a scaffold for the biomineralization of CaCO₃.

 Abstract:  Recent revisions of the genus Imerites Rouchadzé make it possible to introduce a new biochronologic horizon to define more precisely the lower boundary of the Giraudi Zone: the Dichotomus Horizon. Using the concept of 'interval zone', this new horizon maintains the current lower boundary of the Giraudi Zone as accepted by authors, and thus contributes to the stabilization of the Barremian zonal system. This stabilization is also strengthened by abandonment of the use of "Crioceras" cristatus d'Orbigny (nomen dubium) that ought not be used as an index species in detriment of Imerites giraudi (Kilian). The classification, origin, and intraspecific variation of the genus Imerites Rouchadzé are examined.