Vertebrate paleobiodiversity of the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte (southwestern France): implications for continental faunal turnover at the J / K boundary
Author
Allain, Ronan
Author
Vullo, Romain
Author
Rozada, Lee
Author
Anquetin, Jérémy
Author
Bourgeais, Renaud
Author
Goedert, Jean
Author
Lasseron, Maxime
Author
Martin, Jeremy E.
Author
Pérez-García, Adán
Author
Fabrègues, Claire Peyre De
Author
Royo-Torres, Rafael
Author
Augier, Dominique
Author
Bailly, Gilles
text
Geodiversitas
2022
2022-07-21
44
25
683
752
journal article
107849
10.5252/geodiversitas2022v44a25
d0184974-bea3-4f97-a2f8-98887ec4f87e
1638-9395
6902033
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EA12DCB7-A5BE-4763-B805-25087EBD726D
Archaeopterygidae
indet.
(
Fig. 28
A-D)
DESCRIPTION
Archaeopterygid birds are represented in Angeac-Charente by at least five teeth. One of these teeth is complete (ANG M-09,
Fig. 28
A-C), whereas the others are broken at the base of the crown (
Fig. 28D
). The total height of the complete tooth is
3.2 mm
. The crown height is only
1.2 mm
and its basal length is
0.63 mm
. The crown is strongly compressed labiolingually. There are no obvious enamel ornamentation and serrations are totally absent on the slight carinae. The apical quarter of the tooth is strongly distally recurved. Both the mesial and distal edges of the crown are sigmoid. By comparison with teeth of other theropods, we consider that the most convex side of the tooth corresponds to the labial surface (
Fig. 28
B-D).
The specimens from Angeac-Charente are nearly identical to the single tooth collected at Cherves-de-Cognac, which in turn was assigned to an indeterminate archaeopterygid, based on the above characteristics (
Louchart & Pouech 2017
). Angeac-Charente material is the youngest temporal occurrence of this extinct European family of early birds.