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583 32 32.1. A, Map showing the location of the main French sites with hadrosaurid remains dated from the Late Maastrichtian. 1, Ausseing. 2, Auzas. 3, Cassagnau. 4, Le Jadet. 5, Lestaillats. 6, Mérignon . 7, Peyrecave. 8, Tricouté. 9, Le Bexen, 10, the locality of Vitrolles-La-Plaine. B, Schematic stratigraphic column of Vitrolles section with paleomagnetic data and global magnetostratigraphic scale (GMS). Log of Vitrolles-la-Plaine with fossiliferous levels: F1, Vitrolles-Couperigne locality , where one skeleton of Rhabdodon priscus was collected (Garcia et al., 1999); F2, dinosaur eggs organized in clutches; F3, location of the studied assemblage. No precise correlation have been proposed by Galbrun (1989) and Westphal and Durand (1990) for the Rognac Limestone in this part of Basin. The results (dotted lines on B) suggested by Cojan and Moreau (2006) are inexact because they did not take into account the diachronism and the large thickness variation of this formation across the Basin, as already demonstrated by Garcia and Vianey-Liaud (2001a). First Late Maastrichtian (Latest Cretaceous) Vertebrate Assemblage from Provence (Vitrolles-la-Plaine, Southern France) Xavier Valentin, Pascal Godefroit, Rodolphe Tabuce, Monique Vianey-Liaud, Wu Wenhao, and Géraldine Garcia* A Late Maastrichtian locality from Provence (southwestern France) has yielded a diversified vertebrate fauna, including a “zhelestid” mammal, Valentinella vitrollense, in association with lacertilians, cryptodiran chelonians , alligatoroid crocodilians, and a varied dinosaur fauna including Neoceratosauria, Coelurosauria, Titanosauria, basal Iguanodontian, and Hadrosauridae. It is the first noticeable report of the occurrence of hadrosaurids in Provence. The morphology of the dentary and dentary teeth suggests that the hadrosaurid material belongs to a noneuhadrosaurian hadrosaurid, close to Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus and Tethyshadros insularis , also known from the Late Cretaceous of Europe. It is clearly different from hadrosaurid material previously described in Europe. However, the material discovered so far is still inadequate to erect a new taxon. This new site offers new perspectives on the diversity and evolution of the European vertebrate ecosystems during the Maastrichtian. Indeed, the association of hadrosaurids with titanosaurids and Rhabdodon is unusual in the latest Cretaceous of southern France. It questions the hypothesis of the replacement in Western Europe of an Early Maastrichtian fauna dominated by titanosaurid sauropods and Rhabdodon by a Late Maastrichtian assemblage dominated by hadrosaurids. Late Cretaceous continental deposits are widely exposed in southern France. Nevertheless, in spite of intensive field investigations during the last 20 years, the main localities that have yielded a diverse Late Maastrichtian continental fauna were restricted so far to the western part of southern France. All of them (Fig. 32.1) are located in the foothills of the Pyrenees, from the eastern Corbières in the east to both sides of the Garonne Valley in the west, via the Plantaurel in Ariège (see, e.g., Paris and Taquet, 1973; Le Lœuff et al., 1994; Laurent et al., 1999, 2002). Vitrolles-La-Plaine is the first Late Maastrichtian site from Provence that contains diverse articulated and scattered reptile bones associated with mammal remains. This chapter is a preliminary description of the fauna collected during different fieldwork sessions in 1998–1999 and two main excavation campaigns in spring 2007 and 2008. Institutional abbreviations. ISEM, Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France; UP, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France. Introduction Valentin et al. 584 The Vitrolles-La-Plaine site is located in the eastern part of the Aix Basin, close to Lake Berre. It was discovered during a geological survey by one of us (X.V.) in 1997, in Upper Cretaceous deposits near the town of Vitrolles (Garcia, 1998; Garcia and Vianey-Liaud, 2001a). It corresponds to a succession of clays and mottled marls with some interbedded sandstone lenses, topped by the thick lacustrine Limestone of Rognac. By using the stratigraphic distribution of the egg species, Garcia and Vianey-Liaud (2001a) have demonstrated that the Limestone of Rognac, present in the western and eastern areas of the Aix Basin, is clearly diachronous throughout the basin and corresponds to a Late Maastrichtian age in its western part. The vertebrate remains are scattered through a 1.5-m-thick lignite marl layer containing freshwater and terrestrial gastropods (Pyrgulifera armata, Pupilla sp., Lychnus bourguignati, L. matheroni, and Cyclophorus heliciformis) and a single bivalve (Unio cuvieri). The co-occurrence of typical “Rognacian” gastropods (Lychnus matheroni and Pyrgulifera armata), charophytes (Peckichara sertulata, M. Feist, pers. comm.) and dinosaur eggs belonging to the Maastrichtian oospecies Megaloolithus mamillare (Fig. 32.3), as well as the position of the site just below...

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