A GUIDE TO URBAN PALEONTOLOGY: SELECTED SITES IN PARIS, FRANCE

Guidebooks with reference to paleontological sites in Paris, France, are rare and are often in French. After spending the spring of 2017 in Paris, Perry created a guidebook, in English, summarizing important paleontological sites within the city limits. She used photos she took of the sites to supplement her observations and translated French texts to English in order to analyze existing professional literature of guidebooks and geology in Paris. These sites include the world-famous French National Museum of Natural History, the impressive underground network of medieval stone quarries, and historic buildings constructed of fossiliferous limestone. The guidebook also contains background geologic information on the Parisian Basin, a bowl-shaped sequence of Cenozoic age fossiliferous sedimentary rocks, on which Paris sits in the center. These were the rocks that were mined both under and around Paris and it was these rocks that were used as a building stone for most city structures since the Gallo-Roman age. The outstanding paleontologic sites, along with connections to the geologic setting, make for an interesting and accessible guide to a walking tour of Paris and advance the potential for geologic education of visitors to the capital and largest city of France.