Quercy Phosphorites Formation
geologic formation and lagerstätte in Occitanie, France
The Quercy Phosphorites Formation (French: Phosphorites du Quercy; Occitan: Fosforits de Quercy) is a geologic formation and lagerstätte in Occitanie, southern France. It preserves fossils dated to the Paleogene period (latest Bartonian to Late Oligocene), or MP16 to MP28 zones of the European land mammal age classification, ranging from approximately 38 to 25 Ma.
It qualifies as a Lagerstätte because beside a large variety of mammals, birds, turtles, crocodiles, flora and insects, it also preserves the soft tissues of amphibians and squamates, in addition to their articulated skeleton in what has been called natural mummies.
The genera Quercylurus, Quercymegapodius, Quercypsitta, Quercypodargus, Quercycerta and Quercygama, and species Mosaicomeryx quercyi, Robiacina quercyi, Palaeophyllophora quercyi, Archaeomys quercyi, Eomys quercyi, Eucricetodon quercyi and Tarnomys quercynus, as well as the lizards Paraplacosauriops quercyi and Pseudolacerta quercyini and the insect Palaeortona quercyensis were named after the formation.
Description
The first phosphate deposits in Quercy were discovered in 1869 and published by Daubré and Trutat independently in 1871. The first fossils from the formation were described by Delfortie (1872) and Gervais in the same year and extensively studied by Filhol from 1877 onwards. The first geologic investigation of the formation was performed by Thévenin in 1903, and apart from a description by Gèze in 1938, the paleontological richness was not studied until a team of researchers of the Universities of Montpellier and Paris visited the site in 1965.
The karstified phosphate deposits are found from the Lot and Célé river valleys in the north to the left bank of the Aveyron in the south and from the Villefranche Fault in the east to the lacustrine deposits of the Aquitaine Basin in the west. The formation is found in fissures (karst) incising Jurassic and Triassic rocks east of Cahors. The age of the fossiliferous unit, in which almost 12,000 specimens were found ranges from the MP16 to MP28 zones of the European land mammal age classification.
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