Yves Laurent

Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse, France

Bien que leur morphologie soit considérée comme primitive, les chéloniens présentent une diversité remarquable, avec des innovations évolutives majeures associées à de nouveaux modes de vie. L’adaptation indépendante du système de rétractation de la tête marque la divergence au cours du Jurassique des deux clades modernes des Testudines : les crypt...

Post Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary continental ecosystems of Europe host a distinctive assemblage of derived neosuchians related to modern semi-aquatic lineages, including the alligatoroid Diplocynodon and the crocodyloid Asiatosuchus but also a less well-understood group known as the Planocraniidae. Yet, uniquely in its faunal composition,...

New postcranial elements of two mesonychids that lived during the Ypresian (early Eocene) in Europe are here described. The postcranial bones found at La Borie (France; ≈MP8 + 9) can be confidently ascribed to Hyaenodictis raslanloubatieri, while the astragalus found at Palette (France; ≈MP7) probably represents H. rougierae. Our study demonstrates...

The late early Miocene Béon 1 locality has yielded an abundant vertebrate fauna with more than 5,000 remains assigned to four rhinocerotid species: the stem rhinocerotine Plesiaceratherium mirallesi, the teleoceratines Prosantorhinus douvillei and Brachypotherium brachypus, and the early-diverging elasmotheriine Hispanotherium beonense. Such a prof...

The Lophiodontidae is an emblematic and well-documented Eocene family of perissodactyls from Western Europe. However, after more than a century and a half of studies, lophiodontids still display a complex systematics associated with blurry intraspecific variation and a poorly known early radiation. The locality of La Borie, located near the city of...

Béon 2 locality, near Montréal-du-Gers in the Garonne Basin, SW France, yields a middle Orleanian mammalian assemblage coeval to that of Artenay in the Loire Basin (early MN4). Two rhinocerotid species were previously mentioned at Béon 2: the small and slender rhinocerotine Protaceratherium minutum (Cuvier, 1822) and a large-sized and short-limbed...

Here we review the fossil record of European mesonychids, which are known only through the genera Dissacus and Pachyaena from Thanetian and Ypresian localities (from MP6 to MP10 reference-levels). We describe two new species, Dissacus rougierae, sp. nov., and Dissacus raslanloubatieri, sp. nov., respectively from Palette (Ypresian, ≈MP7) and from L...

Diacodexeidae are the first representatives of Artiodactyla in the fossil record. Their first occurrence is at the very base of the Ypresian (earliest Eocene, 56.0 Ma) with Diacodexis, a genus well diversified during the early Eocene in Europe, especially during the MP7–MP8 + 9 interval. However, most of European species are documented by scarce ma...

The early Eocene locality of La Borie is located in the village of Saint-Papoul, in southern France. These Eocene fluvio-lacustrine clay deposits have yielded numerous vertebrate remains. Mammalian taxa found in the fossiliferous levels indicate an age near the reference level MP 8-9, which corresponds to the middle Ypresian, early Eocene. Here we...

We describe six proviverrine species from the Early Eocene of France. Three species are new: Minimovellentodon russelli sp. nov. from Mutigny [mammal palaeogene (MP)8 + 9], Boritia duffaudi sp. nov. from La Borie (MP8 + 9), and Leonhardtina godinoti sp. nov. from Grauves (MP10). We describe new specimens and propose new generic combinations for thr...

The early Eocene locality of La Borie is located in the village of Saint-Papoul, in southern France. These Eocene fluvio-lacustrine clay deposits have yielded numerous vertebrate remains. Mammalian taxa found in the fossiliferous levels indicate an age near the reference level MP 8-9, which corresponds to the middle Ypresian, early Eocene. Here we...

The type species of the suid genus Conohyus Pilgrim (1925) is Sus simorrensis Lartet (1851) by original designation, but, as was usual at the time of the creation of the species in 1851, no holotype was nominated. Allusion was made by Lartet (1851) to upper and lower canines and some molars from two localities, Simorre and Villefranche d’Astarac, F...

La découverte de deux fragments d'hadrosaure (maxillaire et carré) dans des sédiments marins de la fin du Crétacé (Maastrichtien terminal) est relatée. Si ce type de taphocoenose n'est pas exceptionnel pour des organismes continentaux, sa situation à environ 1 m sous la zone à iridium de la limite K/T méritait d'être soulignée. Cette présentation p...

The discovery of two hadrosaur fragments (maxilla and quadrate) in marine sediments of the end of the Cretaceous (uppermost Maastrichtian) is reported. Although this type of taphocoenosis is not exceptional for continental organisms, its situation at approximately 1 m under the iridium zone of the K/T boundary deserves to be emphasized.

Le gisement de La Borie a livré une faune unique dans l'Éocène inférieur du Sud de la France. Cette étude préliminaire y reconnaît 35 taxons de vertébrés, dont certains inédits pour le Sud de la France (le crocodile Kentisuchus), le Sud de l'Europe (le tillodonte Plesiesthonyx) ou la partie occidentale du continent eurasiatique (l'échassier Eogrus)...

The Cassagnau locality (Marignac-Laspeyres, Haute-Garonne department) has yielded the richest vertebrate assemblage of Late Maastrichtian age in western Europe. Numerous bones can be referred to various fishes, amphibians, chelonians, squamates, crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds, some of which constitute the first Late Maastrichtian occurrences in Eu...

A nearly complete turtle shell from the Upper Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of southern France is described as belonging to a new species of Elochelys, E. convenarum sp. nov. (Pleurodira: Pelomedusoides: Bothremydidae). It differs from E. perfecta Nopcsa, 1931 from the Campanian of the Fuveau Basin, southern France, mainly by its larger size, th...

L'utilisation des Étages Campanien et Maastrichtien dans le domaine continental est délicate mais ce domaine doit être considéré dans une étude de définition des limites d'Étages. Définis dans le domaine marin, les Étages globaux du Phanérozoïque peuvent être corrélés avec le domaine continental de deux manières: par une approche géométrique (inter...

A new Late Maastrichtian locality from the Petites-Pyrénées has yielded an important vertebrate fauna. It includes Chondrichthyes (undetermined neoselachian), Osteichthyes (Lepisosteidae, Phyllodontinae, Sparidae?), Chelonia (Pleurodira), Crocodylia, and Dinosauria (Theropoda, Hadrosauridae, Nodosauridae). It is the first mention of a Cretaceous ph...

During the last few years, systematic prospections and excavations in the non-marine Campanian andMaastrichtian of southern France, from Provence in the East to the valley of the Garonne in the West, have considerably increased our knowledge of the continental vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, turtles, squamates, crocodilians, pterosaurs, dinosaurs,...

A very large pterosaur cervical vertebra is described from the Upper Maastrichtian deposits of Mérigon, in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. It resembles the vertebrae of Quetzalcoatlus, from the Maastrichtian of Texas, more than those of Arambourgiania, from the Maastrichtian of Jordan. The estimated wing span of the Mérigon pterosaur is...

Since 1992 numerous skull elements and post-cranial remains of dinosaurs of the family Hadrosauridae were discovered in the Bexen locality in Southwestern France. These remains attributed to Pararhabdodon sp., display changes in the continental ecosystems before the K-T boundary, during the Maastrichtian. The question of the palaeobiogeographic ori...