Pilot excavation for exploring new sites of the Paleocene Fossillagerstätte Menat (Auvergne, France) for a planned large paleontological excavation and research program
Final Report Abstract
Two excavation campaigns were conducted in October 2013 and in August and September 2014 in the fossiliferous sediments of the Paleocene lake of Menat in the Auvergne/France. Our data from both excavations, as well as the field survey demonstrate that the potential maar of Menat has an even larger potential for further taxonomic, palaeoecological and palaeoclimatological investigations as could be expected from the existing literature on this important Fossillagerstätte. However, it became evident that layers with promising preservation of fossils are only present several meters below the surface and can thus only be reached by really large scale excavations. Outcrops with such sediments exist, but are not accessible (i.e. at the margin of the flooded former open pit mine) or only accessible with high effort like a large scale excavation (i.e. near a small river traversing the village). In most cases it is not clear in which depths below the surface the interesting layers occur. Thus it is difficult to judge at which locality further excavations would be feasible without previous drilling to locate these layers. At the moment the only place where it is possible to estimate the depth of these layers is a meadow directly to the west of the small river traversing the village near the locality “Les Lavandes”. Here the sediments are covered by a relatively low amount of weathered sediment. This particular meadow is owned by the town of Menat and we already got a personal communication from the major of Menat that further excavations by us at this site would be possible. We are currently working on the concept for such an excavation.
Publications
- (2014): New Palaeogene horntail wasps (Hymenoptera, Siricidae) and a discussion of their fossil record. Zootaxa 3869(1): 33-43
Wedmann, S., Pouillon J.-M.& Nel, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3869.1.3) - (2015). A fresh look on the Paleocene maar lake of Menat in France. p. 53-54. In: ZfB-Scriptum - Veröffentlichungen des Zentrums für Biodokumentation, Heft 4. Tagungsband zur 86. Tagung der Paläontologischen Gesellschaft e. V. vom 14.- 16. September in Landsweiler-Reden (Saarland) - Hrsg: Zentrum für Biodokumentation. ISBN: 978-3-938381-19-8
Uhl, D., Wedmann, S., Lehmann, T. Hervet, S. Schaal, S.
- The Konservat-Lagerstätte Menat (Paleocene; France) – an overview and new insights. Geologica Acta 16(2), June 2018
Wedmann, S., Uhl, D., Lehmann, T., GARROUSTE, Romain & Nel, Andre & Gomez, Bernard & Smith, Krister & , SCHAAL
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1344/GeologicaActa2018.16.2.5)
