Banc-Noir Quarry (Devonian of France)

Also known as Ferques

Where: Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France (50.8° N, 1.8° E: paleocoordinates 24.4° S, 4.3° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: varcus conodont zone, Couderousse Member (Blacourt Formation), Givetian (387.7 - 382.7 Ma)

• "lower upper Givetian (Middle-Upper varcus Conodont Zone, Pokorninella bricae-Rothpletzella-Tentaculites Assemblage")

Environment/lithology: deep subtidal shelf; lithified, bioturbated packstone and unlithified lime mudstone

• the formation is a "lagoon-like restricted environment, as suggested by the low density of chitinozoan, acritarch and prasinophycean assemblages... Ostracodes suggest that the environment was either lagoon-like or marine, but of shallow water" but the collection itself is "from the inner to middle platform boundary, a little below the FWWB (fair-weather wave base), that is at more or less 25 to 50 m depth"
• sample "comes from hard, grey ochreous limestone, with granular patches due to bioturbations" and itself consists of "patches of bioclastic bioturbated packstone, in a sandy micritic mudstone"

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by C. Loones

Collection methods: peel or thin section,

• Natural History Museum of Lille collection

•thin sections were examined

Primary reference: L. Darras, C. Derycke, A. Blieck and D. Vachard. 2008. The oldest holocephalan (Chondrichthyes) from the Middle Devonian of the Boulonnais (Pas-de-Calais, France). 7(5):297-304 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 90628: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 11.08.2009

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Rothpletzella
  -
Trilobita
  -
Trilobita indet. Walch 1771 trilobite
Deuteropoda
  -
Ostracoda indet. Latreille 1802 ostracod
Ostracoda
 Palaeocopida - Cryptophyllidae
Cryptophyllus sp. Levinson 1951 ostracod
Strophomenata
 Productida - Productellidae
Rhynchonellata
 Spiriferida -
Bryozoa
  -
Bryozoa indet. Ehrenberg 1831
Lophophorata
 Tentaculitida - Tentaculitidae
Tentaculites sp. von Schlotheim 1820
Bivalvia
  -
Bivalvia indet. Linnaeus 1758 clam
Chondrichthyes
 Copodontiformes - Copodontidae
Melanodus loonesi n. gen. n. sp.
Melanodus loonesi n. gen. n. sp. Darras et al. 2008 chimaera
Crinoidea
  -
Crinoidea indet. Miller 1821 Sea lily