A leguminous fossil wood among vertebrate fauna in the Early Miocene Orléanais sands, Beauce, France

Abstract Burdigalian sands of Baigneaux-en-Beauce (Eure-et-Loire, France) corresponding to the upper part of the Sables de l'Orleanais yielded two pieces of a leguminous fossil wood. Its anatomical features were compared to those of certain Acacia and Dichrostachys , and the wood was assigned to Dichrostachyoxylon zirkelii (Felix) Muller-Stoll and Madel, a species already known from Miocene deposits in Europe (France, Germany, Hungary), and western and southern Turkey. The presence of numerous vertebrate remains in association with the wood permits a precise dating: Middle Orleanian (MN4b) or 17 – 17.5 Ma. This find also suggests a paleo-environmental reconstruction, depicting a tropical climate of strongly contrasting seasons and a permanent presence of water in the form of lakes or rivers that would have flooded over into the surrounding leguminous forests after heavy rains.