A reassessment of the Cretaceous amber deposits from France and their palaeontological significance

The Cretaceous amber deposits from France are reviewed, and their palaeontological content is discussed in the light of recent studies. Numerous “old” amber localities mentioned at the beginning of the 20 th century or studied during the 1970s are no longer accessible, but recent field investigations have led to the discovery of new deposits. Among these, the Late Albian amber from Charente-Maritime (SW France) is particularly rich in biological inclusions and thus constitutes one of the major fossiliferous amber deposits for the Cretaceous period. Without having all groups studied, the authors made significant new records and identified taxa occuring in this French amber. This contributes to an improvement of our current knowledge on the evolution and diversity of Mesozoic insects.