The paralic Albian–Cenomanian Puy-Puy Lagerstätte (Aquitaine Basin, France): An overview and new data

The Puy-Puy quarry at Tonnay-Charente (Charente-Maritime, SW France) is a sand quarry exposing a 9-m-thick series of latest Albian–earliest Cenomanian (mid-Cretaceous) age. The uppermost Albian deposits consist of lignitic clay containing fossiliferous amber. The lowermost Cenomanian sand deposits alternate with clay intercalations containing plant remains. One of these clay levels, named P1, shows an outstanding accumulation of conifer and angiosperm macrofossils including delicate reproductive structures such as flowers. Plant remains are associated with invertebrates such as insects (Odonata, Dictyoptera, Diptera), crustaceans (Mecochirus sp.), putative brachiopods (aff. Lingula sp.), and worms. A few vertebrate remains such as shark egg capsules (Palaeoxyris sp.) and a feather are present in the fossil assemblage, as well as an enigmatic specimen tentatively interpreted as a cephalochordate or a petromyzontiform. Various ichnofossils occur in abundance, such as crustacean coprolites and burrows (Ophiomorpha isp.), insect coprolites (Microcarpolithes hexagonalis), and leaf herbivory, galls and mines. The sediments have been deposited in a coastal, calm and brackish area. •Stratigraphy, palaeontology and palaeoecology of the Puy-Puy Lagerstätte, France.•Mid-Cretaceous Konservat-Lagerstätte formed in a quiet paralic environment.•Rich plant assemblage with diverse insect damages on angiosperm leaves.•Lagerstätte with insects preserved in both amber and lignitic clay.•Co-occurrence of marine, brackish, freshwater and terrestrial organisms.