Archaeopterygidae indet.

(Fig. 28 A-D)

DESCRIPTION

Archaeopterygid birds are represented in Angeac-Charente by at least five teeth. One of these teeth is complete (ANG M-09, Fig. 28 A-C), whereas the others are broken at the base of the crown (Fig. 28D). The total height of the complete tooth is 3.2 mm. The crown height is only 1.2 mm and its basal length is 0.63 mm. The crown is strongly compressed labiolingually. There are no obvious enamel ornamentation and serrations are totally absent on the slight carinae. The apical quarter of the tooth is strongly distally recurved. Both the mesial and distal edges of the crown are sigmoid. By comparison with teeth of other theropods, we consider that the most convex side of the tooth corresponds to the labial surface (Fig. 28 B-D).

The specimens from Angeac-Charente are nearly identical to the single tooth collected at Cherves-de-Cognac, which in turn was assigned to an indeterminate archaeopterygid, based on the above characteristics (Louchart & Pouech 2017). Angeac-Charente material is the youngest temporal occurrence of this extinct European family of early birds.