The Douvilleiceratidae (Ammonoidea) of the Lower Aptian historical stratotype area at Cassis-La Bédoule (SE France)

Recent biostratigraphic research in the marly limestones of the Cassis-La Bédoule area (SE France) provided a rich macrofauna of Douvilleiceratidae Parona & Bonarelli, 1897. From the uppermost Barremian (Pseudocrioceras waagenoides Subzone) to the middle Aptian (Parahoplites melchioris Zone), specimens of Procheloniceras, Cheloniceras, Roloboceras, Megatyloceras and Epicheloniceras were collected in succession. In this paper we describe the various genera and species from this material and delimit precisely their stratigraphic positions. Our study shows that each genus or subgenus characterizes a discrete stratigraphic interval. In addition, the Cheloniceras meyendorffi (upper Bedoulian), Epicheloniceras debile, Epicheloniceras gracile, and Epicheloniceras buxtorfi (Gargasian = middle Aptian) subzones, originally defined in England by Casey (1961a), are identified for the first time in the Lower Aptian stratotypic area of Cassis-La Bédoule.