
Cappetta HenriUniversité de Montpellier | UM1 · Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution Montpellier (ISEM)
Cappetta Henri
Dr. es Sciences
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Introduction
Publications
Publications (249)
In 1990’s, French-Omani team first signalled in southern part of Dhofar, South Oman, several terrestrial vertebrates mixed with marine members in an Early Oligocene fossil assemblage. Even though most of these fossils have been reported and published by palaeontologists, fossil elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) have deserved little attention since th...
We here describe a monospecific assemblage of giant aquatic snakes from the middle Eocene of Kpogamé, Togo. The material, consisting of large isolated vertebrae, is referred to Palaeophis africanus , an enigmatic palaeophiid species, which was so far otherwise known only from a limited number of vertebrae from the middle Eocene of Nigeria and Angol...
This contribution contains the 3D models described and figured in the following publication: Georgalis, G.L., G. Guinot, K.E. Kassegne, Y.Z. Amoudji, A.K.C. Johnson, H. Cappetta and L. Hautier. 2021. An assemblage of giant aquatic snakes (Serpentes, Palaeophiidae) from the Eocene of Togo. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology 140, 20,
https://doi.org/10.1...
The Quintanilla la Ojada section (Basque-Cantabrian Region, northern Spain) has yielded two assemblages of Late Cretaceous vertebrates, deposited during the Maastrichtian in coastal environments and related to a transgressive lag at the base of the Valdenoceda Formation. Numerous teeth of Elasmobranchii and Actinopterygii are the most prevailing fo...
We report here three new elasmobranch fossil taxa from Thanetian–Lower Lutetian nearshore marine deposits of northeastern (Matam region) and central-western (Sine-Saloum region) Senegal. These three new taxa represent the oldest species of the enigmatical elasmobranch Odontorhytis, the oldest putative representatives of marine potamotrygonid, and a...
The upper Cretaceous of the eastern part of the Ksour Mountains (Western Saharan Atlas, Algeria) is classically subdivided into three fossiliferous lithostratigraphic formations: El Rhelida (lower Cenomanian), Mdaouer (lower-middle Cenomanian) and Rhoundjaïa (upper Cenomanian-lower Turonian). The western part of the Ksour Mountains, which is less d...
The upper Cretaceous of the eastern part of the Ksour Mountains (Western Saharan Atlas, Algeria) is classically subdivided into three fossiliferous lithostratigraphic formations: El Rhelida (lower Cenomanian), Mdaouer (lower-middle Cenomanian) and Rhoundjaïa (upper Cenomanian-lower Turonian). The western part of the Ksour Mountains, which is less d...
Bulk sampling of an indurated glauconic sandstone horizon from Djebel el Kébar, Central Tunisia, yielded a moderately diversified assemblage of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays), dating from the late Middle Eocene (mid Bartonian). Here, 10 new taxa (nine new species and three new genera) are described among a total diversity of 33 species. These new...
This article describes a rich and diversified elasmobranch fauna collected from the Upper Campanian Northumberland Formation, a part of the Nanaimo Group, exposed on Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada. This fauna consists of 30 species belonging to 26 genera and is characterised by a large number of new elasmobranch taxa (17 species, 7 genera...
Elasmobranchii is a clade of chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes) that comprises sharks, skates and rays represented today by approximately 1,200 species. Chondrichthyans have a long evolutionary history dating back to the Late Ordovician (ca. 450 million years ago [Mya]) based on isolated dermal denticles (Janvier 1996). Other remains such as ar...
While the late Eocene/Oligocene elasmobranches have been largely reported around the eastern Tethysian strait before its final closure (e.g., Egypt, Oman, and Pakistan), few reports were made near its western counterpart, connected with the Atlantic realm. Here we report a series of exceptional fossil localities that fill this gap with previous (Ad...
The phosphate series of Matam (located at the North-East of Senegal) consists of a 10 meters alternation of soft phosphate levels, sand horizons and phosphatic limestones. While they were only mentioned in some preliminary geological works, isolated teeth of selachians are nevertheless common in these phosphate deposits. Detailed fieldwork of 9 new...
The phosphates of Morocco range over a period of about 24 million years (m.y.), from the end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) up to the base of the Middle Eocene (Lutetian), which is the longest interval of all phosphate deposits from the Mediterranean and Atlantic “Phosphogenic Provinces”. These marine sediments have recorded the evolution of lif...
The phosphates of Morocco range over a period of about 24 million years (m.y.), from the end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) up to the base of the Middle Eocene (Lutetian), which is the longest interval of all phosphate deposits from the Mediterranean and Atlantic “Phosphogenic Provinces”. These marine sediments have recorded the evolution of lif...
The discovery of fossil fish and reptiles in the banks of the Conecuh River at the Point «A» Dam site, northwest of the town of Andalusia, Covington County, Alabama, has brought to light 38 selachian species belonging to 31 genera, from the Lisbon Formation (Middle Eocene, Lutetian). One new genus and three new species are described: Orectolobus zi...
The Oligocene selachian fauna of the Menilitic Formation (Oligocene) of the Carpathians is reviewed in the light of new material coming from the province of Moravia (Eastern Czech Republic). Several species previously described on the basis of incomplete teeth are here represented by well-preserved and more numerous specimens and allows to rectify...
1. Devil rays (genus Mobula) are pelagic elasmobranchs widely distributed throughout tropical, subtropical and warm-temperate waters. Their occurrence and distribution remains poorly documented in the Arabian Seas region. A review is provided of species occurrence in these water bodies along with a synthesis of regional information on their biology...
Marine vertebrate fossils from late Cretaceous–early Paleogene shallow marine phosphorites of Morocco were investigated for their trace element compositions and neodymium isotopic ratios in order to constrain marine and depositional conditions. The various analyzed fossils are separated into two groups with different geo-chemical compositions: (1)...
In the early nineteen sixties, Arambourg and Magnier found some freshwater fish (i.e., Polypterus sp., Siluriformes indet. and Lates sp.) mixed with marine members in an Eocene vertebrate assemblage at Gebel Coquin, in the southern Libyan Desert. This locality, aged ca 37-39Ma and now known under the name of Dur At-Talah, has been recently excavate...
Marine vertebrate fossils from late Cretaceous–early Paleogene shallow marine phosphorites of Morocco were investigated for their trace element compositions and neodymium isotopic ratios in order to constrain marine and depositional conditions. The various analyzed fossils are separated into two groups with different geochemical compositions: (1) s...
Résumé
Dans les Hauts Plateaux méridionaux (Maroc oriental), des études stratigraphiques, paléontologiques et sédimentologiques ont été réalisées dans la série détritique rouge (grès et conglomérats de la Formation du Tigri) qui succède aux dépôts marins du Cénomano–Turonien. La partie inférieure de la Formation du Tigri comporte cinq incursions ma...
In the Southern High Plateaus (Eastern Morocco), stratigraphical, paleontological and sedimentological studies were permorfed in the detrital red series (sandstones and conglomerates of the Tigri Formation) which cover the Cenomanian-Turonian marine deposits. The lower part of the Tigri Formation shows five brackish or marine incursions with oligos...
The vertebrate-bearing beds of the Laño quarry (Condado de Treviño) are among the most relevant sites from the Late Cretaceous of Europe. Geologically, Laño and the adjacent region are set on the southern limb of the South-Cantabrian Synclinorium (SE Basque-Cantabrian Region, northern Iberian Peninsula). The Laño sites were discovered in 1984; thou...
Two new Squalicorax species, S. benguerirensis nov. sp. and S. microserratus nov. sp. are described from the Lower Maastrichtian of the Benguérir phosphate open mine, Ganntour deposit, Morocco. The species S. benguerirensis nov. sp. was classically assigned to S. yangaensis by Arambourg (1952) and has been also recognized in coeval deposits from ea...
Mesozoic marine reptiles went through a severe turnover near the end of the Triassic. Notably, an important extinction event affected ichthyosaurs, sweeping a large part of the group. This crisis is, however, obscured by an extremely poor fossil record and is regarded as protracted over the entire Norian-earliest Jurassic interval, for the lack of...
The Maastrichtian of Benguérir (eastern part of the Ganntour Basin, Morocco) consists of about 20 meters of phosphates displaying an alternation of soft phosphate levels, marly horizons and hard phosphatic limestones. Isolated teeth of selachians, actinopterygians and marine reptiles are extremely numerous in these phosphatic deposits and have been...
Bulk sampling of a Valanginian indurate limestone horizon from southern France yielded a very high-diversity shark and ray assemblage. Thirteen new species and eight new genera (Antrigoulia circumplicata gen. et sp. nov., Gladioserratus dentatus sp. nov., Occitanodus sudrei gen. et sp. nov., Echinorhinus vielhus sp. nov., Pseudorhina crocheti sp. n...
The well-known Maastrichtian–Ypresian vertebrate-bearing phosphate series, in the Ouled Abdoun Basin, Morocco, is classically dated using regional selachian biostratigraphic zonation. These marine sediments yielded Paleocene and Eocene mammals comprising the earliest known placentals from Africa. This study provides the first insight into the organ...
Fossil biogenic apatites were studied for their geochemical composition across the late Cretaceous–early Eocene Moroccan phosphate series in the Ouled Abdoun and Ganntour basins in Morocco in order to characterize paleoenvironmental conditions and to improve stratigraphy. The vertebrate remains show particularly good structural, mineralogical and c...
Lutetian lower middle Eocene phosphate deposits of Kpogame-Hahotoe in Togo yield new information about whales and sea cows in West Africa. Most specimens are individual teeth and bones, collected as isolated elements, but some appear to have been associated. Most are conservatively interpreted to represent a new 300-400 kg protocetid archaeocete, T...
Cladodontomorph sharks are Palaeozoic stem chondrichthyans thought to go extinct at the end-Permian mass extinction. This extinction preceded the diversification of euselachians, including modern sharks. Here we describe an outer-platform cladodontomorph shark tooth assemblage from the Early Cretaceous of southern France, increasing the fossil reco...
The microstructure of neoselachian teeth is characterized by a triple-layered enameloid, despite its purported absence in batoids since their appearance during the early Jurassic. This feature is thought to have been secondarily lost, as an adaptation to durophagy in batoids. The monophyletic Myliobatiformes are an ecologically diverse clade of bat...
Potobatis semperei gen. et sp. nov. sp. (Myliobatiformes, Dasyatoidea) comes from a level located at the top of the section of the El Molino Formation at La Palca, near Potosí. This level is Danian in age according to magnetostratigraphic studies. Close to the African
genus Hypolophites (Dasyatoidea, Dasyatidae) by its dental morphology, the new ge...
The Jurassic is a period where numerous extant neoselachian groups appear in the fossil record and the Middle-Late Jurassic interval probably encompasses diversification events for this group. It is commonly advanced that Jurassic elasmobranch faunas are dominated by extinct (palaeospinacids, orthacodontids, paraorthacodontids) and/or necto-benthic...
Bulk-sampling of 22 phosphatic horizons from the Upper Cretaceous of northern France and the UK has yielded very
rich selachian faunas dominated by shark taxa. These samples, collected from Cenomanian to Campanian Chalks and one
glauconitic sediment, allow the identification of numerous new taxa, and improve our knowledge of northern European
Late...
A marine tropical fauna, which survived the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, was reported from several places in post-Messinian sediments in the northern Mediterranean area (e.g. Spain, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus). In North Africa knowledge about the marine post-Messinian is very limited. Here we present a unique diverse fish faun...
Modern selachians and their supposed sister group (hybodont sharks) have a long and successful evolutionary history. Yet, although selachian remains are considered relatively common in the fossil record in comparison with other marine vertebrates, little is known about the quality of their fossil record. Similarly, only a few works based on specifi...
Correlation table using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient and corresponding p-values. Values in bold indicate statistically significant correlations. O = Order; F = Family; G = Genus.
(XLS)
Phylogenetic hypotheses used in the analyses.
(DOC)
Observed and computed stratigraphic ranges for genera, families and orders.
(DOC)
Example of RCI scores obtained for an unresolved tree and for corresponding resolved trees with replications.
(TIF)
RCI (using CBM) and RCI’ (using DDBM) scores for the various phylogenetic hypotheses considered. ‘Unresolved’ corresponds to the best RCI and RCI’ scores considering trees with polytomies; ‘resolved’ indicates best RCI and RCI’ scores for trees with resolved polytomies and corresponding number of possible trees. Values in bold indicate best scores...
Stratigraphic framework used in the analyses.
(DOC)
The exact affinities of the fossil teeth attributed to the devilrays (mobulids) are critical for resolving the debated origin of these giant pelagic rays amongst Myliobatiformes and the timing of their evolution toward planktivory. We performed the first detailed comparative description of teeth belonging to most of the living and fossil mobulids....
Bulk sampling of phosphatic horizons from the Late Cretaceous of the Anglo-Paris Basin and Northern Ireland yielded
very rich and high diversity selachian faunas. Amongst them, batoid remains (rays and skates) are commonly present and
diverse although never a dominant element of these assemblages. The following new taxa are described: Cretaplatyrhi...
Two shark teeth from the Early Cretaceous limestone (Late Hauterivian, Pseudothurmannia ohmi Zone, Pseudothurmannia catulloi Subzone) of Nyons (Drôme) in southeast France are reported here as Echinorhinus sp. They represent the oldest record of the family Echinorhinidae (Elasmobranchii), an enigmatic and primitive branch of living deep-sea sharks....
Bulk sampling of phosphate-rich horizons within
the Late Cretaceous of the Anglo-Paris Basin yielded numerous
teeth of members of the Squatiniformes. Along with isolated
tooth remains, two museum specimens comprising
partial articulated encoskeletal remains including the holotype
of the species Squatina cranei Woodward, 1888a are
described, and a n...
The Early Cretaceous is punctuated by widespread biocalcification crises. These are characterized by decrease in the carbonate platform growth and, in the pelagic realm, by a decline in Nannoconus relative abundance in the calcareous nannofossil assemblages. The Valanginian Nannoconus decline started before the positive delta C-13 excursion charact...
Recent paleontological excavations of the Middle Miocene sandstones (top of the “Schlier” facies) near Mazan, Vaucluse (southern
France) uncovered a rich selachian teeth assemblage including 34 shark and ray species. This great diversity of selachian
taxa provides new information about the palaeoenvironmental settings of some Middle Miocene deposit...
While the Middle/Late Eocene marine vertebrates in Egypt have been largely reported around the Fayum oasis, few reports were made elsewhere. Here we report a new fossil site (Km55) located near the Bahariya Oasis in the Western desert of Egypt. This fossiliferous outcrop has yielded abundant fossil material of invertebrates dated to the Middle/Late...
Modern neoselachian sharks may be separated from more basal relatives by the presence of tooth enameloid comprising three layers. Although enameloid microstructure studies were mostly used in the aim of differentiating supposed basal neoselachians from hybodonts, differences in the enameloid organization among neoselachians have been recognized sug...
Recent field work in the southern Moroccan Sahara (‘Western Sahara’), south of the city of ad-Dakhla, has led to the discovery of several new fossiliferous sites with fossil vertebrates in sedimentary deposits previously reported for the Mio-Pliocene. The sedimentology and geological setting of the studied area are briefly reported here, and at lea...
Modern species of the genus Heterodontus are relatively small, with two spined dorsal fins, prominent eye
ridges and a dentition characterised by two tooth morphologies: small, pointed, clutching anterior teeth and
low, blunt, crushing lateral teeth. Although fossil representatives of the genus are mainly found as isolated
teeth, associated dentiti...
Little is known about the extinct Xiphodolamia, a peculiar lamnid shark which inhabited the Eocene seas. The reexamination of a large set of fossilized teeth specimens from the Ypresian of Kazakhstan has enabled the reconstitution of the tooth series of this enigmatic taxa of lamnid shark. Five distinct tooth morphologies seem to occur in X. ensis...
Gyrogonites of charophytes from two localities of the Oudiksou syncline (Middle Atlas, Morocco) are studied. The Irbzer formation in the Achlouj-2 site yielded charophytes (Feistiella oblonga, F. globosa, Strobilochara apiculata, S. diademata) that suggest a Campanian–Maastrichtian age; this result is consistent with all previously published biochr...
Cappetta, H. 2008. New fossil triakid sharks from the Eocene of Prémontré, France and comments on fossil record of the family. Acta Paleontologica Polonica 53 (3): 433–448. During the last two decades, an abundant selachian assemblage has been collected from the late Ypresian (NP12) fossiliferous sands of Prémontré (Aisne, northern France) but has...
In 1935, Dalinkevičius described and illustrated several teeth of squaloid sharks from Lithuania, originating from deposits considered by him to be of Cenomanian and Turonian age. To date, these strata are known to be of late Albian and late Cenomanian age, respectively. A re-examination of the original collection, together with an analysis of newl...
Phosphatic remains of marine vertebrates recovered from five fossil sites of the Pisco Formation ranging from the latest Middle/earliest Late Miocene (Ca 11–13 Ma) to the Early Pliocene (Ca 3.5 Ma) have been analysed for their oxygen isotope compositions (δ18Op). Coexisting seals, dolphins, whales, penguins and sharks from each locality have distin...
Some elasmobranch teeth, belonging to the batoid genera Dasyatis and Ouledia, have been collected for the first time in three late middle Eocene localities of the Pondaung Formation from Central Myanmar, which are known for their abundant continental vertebrate remains. Considering the environmental conditions, the occurrences of these elasmobranch...
Fossil deep-sea selachians are rare and their diversity underestimated as a consequence of the scarcity of available outcrops of sediments containing them. Here we report a new fossil locality from theMiddle Eocene of southwestern France and give a first synthesis of the deep-sea deposits of this area which have yielded one of the richest fossil se...
Squaliformes comprise the major proportion of modern deep-water sharks, yet their fossil history and phylogenetic relationships are still poorly understood. New analyses have been undertaken, however, and new living and fossil species have been discovered during the past 10 years. A cladistic analysis involving 29 dental characters has been made an...