Late Maastrichtian continental vertebrates from southwestern France: correlation with marine fauna

The Cassagnau locality (Marignac-Laspeyres, Haute-Garonne department) has yielded the richest vertebrate assemblage of Late Maastrichtian age in western Europe. Numerous bones can be referred to various fishes, amphibians, chelonians, squamates, crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds, some of which constitute the first Late Maastrichtian occurrences in Europe (a large varanoid lizard, a longirostrine crocodile, an enantiornithine bird) or in Southern France (a titanosaurid dinosaur). The latter discovery shows that at least five dinosaur families were represented in the Late Maastrichtian of western Europe. As for other localities of the French Petites Pyrénées, the age of the Cassagnau locality can be directly constrained by biostratigraphical and biochronological evidence based on associated marine and continental microfauna and microflora; therefore, the assemblages from these localities can be considered as reference assemblages for the continental Late Maastrichtian localities of Southern Europe, the age of which has been much disputed.