Abstract
Stratigraphical and palaeontological researches on the continental Upper Cretaceous beds of the Castigno valley (Villespassans, Hérault, southern France) began in the 1890s with the work of the local researcher Jean Miquel. The study of the dinosaur remains from that locality by Charles Depéret in 1900 greatly added to the knowledge of the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of France. Stratigraphical misinterpretations by Depéret and Miquel then led Emile Haug to believe that the Castigno dinosaurs came from the base of the Tertiary (Montian). This mistake was corrected by Albert F. de Lapparent in 1938. Recent researches at Castigno and at the nearby Combebelle site have yielded remains of various vertebrate groups (amphibians, squamates, turtles, crocodiles, dinosaurs, birds) from several fossil-bearing horizons, corresponding to different depositional environments (fluvial followed by lacustrine), probably referrable to the upper Campanian. The Castigno- Combebelle sedimentary series is clearly important for our understanding of vertebrate faunal succession in the Late Cretaceous of Languedoc.