Palaeoecology
Environments and geological time
Reconstructing a habitat from its traces
Palaeoecology investigates ancient environments and relationships among their organisms. It brings together evidence from several specialisms rather than simply listing species.
The method in practice
Researchers compare plants, animals, sediments, activity traces and chemical signatures. They assess whether remains came from organisms living locally or were transported. They also examine biases: organisms fossilise differently, and collection methods vary.
Reconstructing to understand
Reconstructing a lost landscape
Michel Fontaine reconstructs Angeac’s ancient landscape using knowledge of its fauna, vegetation and environment.
At Angeac and in regional comparisons
Clays, wood, pollen, vertebrates and biological activity traces document a humid continental environment. They do not represent all organisms equally: transport, decomposition and preservation determine what reaches us.
What this research reveals
Landscape reconstructions are evidence-based syntheses. Some relationships are supported directly by traces; others remain hypotheses. Drawings give form to the landscapes and animal and plant communities studied by researchers.
Examining the evidence
Vegetation preserved in clay
Agathoxylon trunks and branches may be aligned or tangled. Their arrangement adds to evidence from bones and sediments in studying plant-remain accumulation. The large trunk in panel D, ANG 12-1986, exceeds 12 metres.
This trunk, discovered in 2012, is distinct from the 14.54-metre trunk excavated in 2023, presented on the Palaeobotany page.
Specimens and data
Reconstructing a landscape from the evidence
Mazan reconstructs the animals and vegetation of Angeac in their wetland environment.
Enlarge each plate to examine labels, specimen identifiers and scale bars.
People and expertise
Palaeoecology combines the work of specialists in plants, animals, sediments and taphonomy. Their observations are compared to reconstruct the environment and its changes.
Further reading
Overview reference: Dinosaures, les géants du vignoble (2017), p. 26–29, 52–57, 124–135.
Publications and results → · The book and its authors →
Scientific research on this topic
- 2024 · Coprolites and feeding interactions (article)
- 2022 · The fossil wetland of Angeac-Charente (chapter)
- 2021 · Formation of the deposit: a taphonomic synthesis (article)
- 2019 · Taphonomy of vertebrate macroremains from Angeac (doctoral thesis)
- 2018 · Integrative study of the Angeac bonebed (conference contribution)
- 2017 · Charophytes of the northern Aquitaine Basin (article)
- 2017 · Inferring ancient ecology and behaviour (conference contribution)
