Trilobites and ichnofossils from a new fossil Lagerstätte in the Lower Cambrian Pardailhan Formation, southern Montagne Noire, France

Abstract

The Pardailhan Formation has yielded, close to Villeneuve-Minervois (Minervois nappe), a new fossil assemblage composed of ellipsocephalid, redlichiid, and abadiellid trilobites ( Blayacina lineata nov. sp., Eoredlichia cf. noiri, and Granolenus midi and G. jagoi nov. sp., respectively), linguliformean brachiopods, bradoriids, chancelloriid sclerites, hyoliths, sponge, spicules, ichnofossils ( Astropolichnus hispanicus and Tomaculum problematicum), and arthropod appendages. This paper offers a description of trilobites and trace fossils, which allows the erection of a preliminary biostratigraphic framework for future works based on systematic and paleobiologic contributions of other taxa. The association is late Ovetian/Botoman (Early Cambrian) in age, and represents a fossil concentration/conservation deposit. This finding opens the opportunity to improve the knowledge of the Lower Cambrian metazoan communities recorded in muddy substrates of southwestern Europe, which currently disappeared from the fossil record by diagenetic processes.