Le Sud tunisien : lieu privilégié pour caractériser les taphofaciès végétaux du Mésozoïque

The recent discovery of numerous localities with Bathonian to Albian plants imprints in southern Tunisia (Tataouine area) has permitted to define six main types of plant taphofacies: marine deposits with floated trunks, channels with eroded/rounded fern axes, inundated forests, hypo-autochthonous accumulations, autochthonous riparian herbaceous formations. Their relation with sedimentology is presented. These taphofacies represent both the installation of pioneering vegetation submitted to marine-level fluctuations and the establishment of conifers and fern forests fossilized in autochthonous position, but also sometimes subjected to transport over a short distance to meandering fluvial system.