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Original paper

The importance of silicified wood, stromatolites, and conifers for the paleoecology and the stratigraphy in the Lower Permian of the northeastern Blanzy - Le Creusot Basin (Massif Central, France)

Gand, Georges; Stapf, Karl R. G.; Broutin, Jean; Debriette, Pierre

Abstract

In the Red Sandstones of the Blanzy - Le Creusot basin, new silicified wood and stromatolite occurrences were discovered and integrated into a new stratigraphic table developed by the authors. The different types of silicified wood known from the beginning of this century are described and illustrated for the first time: Arthropitys sp., Dadoxylon (Araucarioxylon) sp., Dadoxylon (Cordaioxylon) sp., Dadoxylon (Eristophyton) sp. were identified. They are members of a tree flora of Calamariaceae and Gymnosperms (Cordaitales, Coniferales, Ginkgoales), and their anatomic character is promoted by a warm humid climate. The stromatolites prove lacustrine as well as fluvial environments. First results of the sedimentologic investigations were combined with results of the study of the fossils, and a more complete image of the paleoenvironmental situation of the basin is introduced. It was characterized by a wide flood plain and lacustrine zones, and near the active basin margins alluvial fans were formed, replacing a fan and lake system due to increasing aridity. The Red Sandstones were formerly placed into the "Saxonian" stage, but according to the flora and the microflora in the underlying Vendenesse - la Folie Group, they should be of Saxonian age. As the tree flora of the Red Sandstones is, with respect to its essential components, identical with the tree flora of the Autunian of Autun, it is assumed that the Red Sandstones were deposited during the Lower Permian. The existence of a horizon with tetrapod traces at the top of the Red Sandstones neither confirms their age nor makes it more precise. Due to correlations with the Lodève basin, these beds are of Saxonian or Thuringian age.