Un siècle de paléontologie des échinodermes gravé dans les Annales de Paléontologie

Abstract

Born in 1906, the Annales de Paléontologie have firstly published a series of papers about Madagascar fossils where a few ones written by Jean Cottreau or Marcellin Boule, with the contribution of Jules Lambert, described fossil echinoids. These publications corresponded to the tradition of the palaeontological studies of the XIXth century, with mainly inventory and systematic descriptions of species. This kind of papers have been published in the Annales until the end of the XXth century, with papers dedicated to fossil echinoderms from the african continent and the arabic peninsula. Parallel to these descriptions of mesozoic and cenozoic echinoids, numerous papers from the Annales have been devoted to palaeozoic echinoderms, with as emblematic author Georges Ubaghs. Then, during the seventies and the eightees, develop in the Annales a more analytic palaeontology. A series of papers, with Jean Roman as common author, have studied the problem of the survival of diverse echinoids, within the Mediterranean basin, during the evaporitic Messinian crisis. Another series of papers linked to the researches of Jean Roman analyzed the Neogene marsupiate echinoids from north-western France. Always on a palaeoecological point of view, the works of Dalila Zaghbib-Turki have precised the interest of fossil echinoids in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, especially the spatangoids and the cassiduloids. Finally, as far as biostratigraphical studies are concerned, Monique Fouray has pointed out the phylogenetic characters of Micraster that can be used in the biochronology of the western-european Upper Cretaceous.