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Following the 1989-90 winter storms, remains of several straight-tusked elephants as well as a rich quaternary paleoflora were found on the strand of La Parée beach in Brétignolles-sur-Mer (Vendée, France). The story of these findings, the diggings of the bones, the dating and the paleoenvironment of the deposits are mentioned in this article. The sediments are old "peat bogs" which belong to two distinct eras : Pleistocene (peat bog holding the remains of straight-tusked elephants) and Holocene (peat bog showing tracks of Bovidae and prints of tools, and higher peat bogs).
On the intertidal zone of Le Veillon at Talmond-Saint-Hilaire (Vendée, France), in 1963 Gilbert Bessonnat discovered traces of vertebrate footprints in a Hettangian formation. On March 28th & 29th, at this site a study session was held on the theme: "sites with vertebrate footprints on the Triassic-Jurassic limit". Palæontologists, palæobotanists, sedimentologists, hydrologists, scientific historians and naturalists compared their results and projected further research. This exceptional Vendée heritage site is to be protected and developed.
It has been forty years since the Jurassic site of Veillon in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire (Vendée, France), where footprints of vertebrates were found, was plundered. This outstanding site belonging to Vendée's geological patrimony needs to be preserved and developed. Some footprints from Veillon are displayed in the collections of about thirty public institutions and six museums.