(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Paleontological investigations undertaken since 1965 by Montpellier and Paris teams in the Quercy phosphorites have led to the discovery of more than 100 homogeneous and well dated fossil faunas. Most of these faunas range between the late Eocene and the beginning of the late Oligocene. Different groups of terrestrial vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have concerned anatomical, systematical and phylogenetical studies which complete our knowledge on the late Paleogene Western European faunas. The study of some species lineages well represented in these karstic fillings has permitted to refine the European mammalian biochronological scale. Paleogeographical and paleoecological aspects concerning these Quercy faunas have also been treated as well as their turnover dynamics (extinction, appearance, diversity). Taphonomical studies have recently started in order to better understand the genesis of fossil assemblages. Moreover, new collaborations have been solicited with the purpose to analyze the dynamics of karstic phenomena. Synthetic studies including geomorphology, taphonomy, sedimentology, geochemistry and magnetostratigraphy have thus been undertaken in a calibrated (a few ten thousand years) chronological framework.