The ‘‘Continental Intercalaire’’ of southern Tunisia: Stratigraphy, paleontology, and paleoecology Federico Fanti ⇑ , Michela Contessi, Fulvio Franchi Department of Earth and Geo-Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Via Zamboni 67, 40126 Bologna, Italy article info Article history: Received 29 September 2011 Received in revised form 19 July 2012 Accepted 20 July 2012 Available online 27 July 2012 Keywords: Early Cretaceous Southern Tunisia Douiret Formation Aïn El Guettar Formation Continental Intercalaire Vertebrates abstract The ‘‘Continental Intercalaire’’ deposits of southern Tunisia preserve one of the most diverse Early Creta- ceous vertebrate fauna from Africa, consisting of elasmobranchs, actinopterygians, sarcopterygians, tur- tles, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs, and non-avian dinosaurs. Vertebrate remains representative of both marine and fluvial environments have been historically referred to a specific bonebed within the Chenini Member, which crops out extensively in the Tataouine region. A stratigraphic revision of the mainly silic- iclastic deposits of the Douiret and the Aïn El Guettar formations in the area based on new sedimentolog- ical and paleontological data is presented. Data collected indicate the presence of multiple fossil-bearing strata encompassing the stratigraphic interval from the Berriasian to the Albian and document faunal variation through time as well as major environmental and climatic changes. Detailed sedimentological analysis combined with biostratigraphic correlation performed at a basin scale indicate lateral facies var- iability within each formation as a result of tectonically and climatically driven zonations within the Tataouine Basin in the Early Cretaceous. Furthermore, proposed stratigraphic correlations indicate that vertebrate remains previously referred to the fluvial Chenini Member (and in particular theropod and sauropod dinosaurs) are instead representative of a transgressive deposit which mark the base of the overlying Oum ed Diab Member. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Since 1912, when L. Pervinquière first reported fossil vertebrate remains from the Early Cretaceous beds of the Tataouine region in southern Tunisia (Fig. 1), tens of scientific expeditions have dealt with the thick sequence of rocks termed the ‘‘Continental Interca- laire’’ by Kilian in 1931. This alternation of Late Jurassic–Early Cre- taceous shallow-marine, littoral and non-marine deposits extends over much of northern Africa, from Algeria to Egypt and from Sudan to Niger (Bouaziz et al., 1988; Lefranc and Guiraud, 1990; Zarbout et al., 1994; Benton et al., 2000; Courel et al., 2003; Anderson et al., 2007; Khalifa and Catuneanu, 2008; Cavin et al., 2010). Fossils collected from these beds consist primarily of incomplete elements, but the combination of a diverse palaeontological record (both mar- ine and non-marine taxa, and megaplant remains) as well as contin- uous exposures of the sedimentary successions provides a unique database for the comprehension of the evolution of this sector of southern Tethys during the Early Cretaceous. Thus, a steady succes- sion of studies have treated the potential of the area from different perspectives, including geodynamic evolution (Bouaziz et al., 1989, 2002; Bodin et al., 2010), stratigraphy (Aubert, 1891; Joly, 1909; Robaux and Choubert, 1941; Burollet and Magnier, 1963; Busson, 1967; Abdallah, 1989; Lefranc and Guiraud, 1990; Zarbout et al., 1994; Abdallah et al., 1995, 2000; Courel et al., 2003; Marzouk and Youssef, 2008), palaeontology and paleoecology (Lapparent, 1951, 1960; Gorce, 1960; Tabaste, 1963; Schlüter and Schwarzhans, 1978; Taquet, 1980; Bouaziz et al., 1988; Benton et al., 2000; Buffetaut and Ouaja, 2002; Ouaja, 2003; Russell and Paesler, 2003; Cuny et al., 2004, 2010; Durand, 2005; Anderson et al., 2007; Amiot et al., 2010; Contessi et al., 2011a,b; Contessi and Fanti, 2012), and paleobotany (Barale et al., 1998; Ben Ismaïl, 1991; Barale and Ouaja, 2001, 2002; Ouaja et al., 2004). In these and other studies, macro- and microfossil vertebrate remains (which include sharks, bony fishes, turtles, crocodylians, dinosaurs and pterosaurs) have been referred to the Aptian–Albian Douiret and Aïn El Guettar forma- tions, which consist in alternating shallow marine, coastal and flu- vial deposits (Bouaziz et al., 1988; Ben Ismaïl, 1991; Benton et al., 2000; Ouaja et al., 2002, 2004). However, it is important to notice two substantial methodological weaknesses in the paleontological data available in the literature. First of all, much of the specimens described and used for paleoecological interpretations are repre- sentative of just few well-known and heavily sampled fossil locali- ties confined in the northern section of the Tataouine basin. Second, with the exception of specimens described by Benton et al. (2000), there are no references to specific beds within a stratigraphic col- umn, but only generic attributions to a formation or a member. 1464-343X/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2012.07.006 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 051 2094565; fax: +39 051 2094522. E-mail addresses: federico.fanti@unibo.it (F. Fanti), michela.contessi2@unibo.it (M. Contessi), fulvio.franchi2@unibo.it (F. Franchi). Journal of African Earth Sciences 73–74 (2012) 1–23 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of African Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jafrearsci Please cite this article in press as: Fanti, F., et al. The ‘‘Continental Intercalaire’’ of southern Tunisia: Stratigraphy, paleontology, and paleoecology. J. Afr. Earth Sci. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2012.07.006