Studies of distant galaxies have shown that ellipticals and large spirals (Schade et al., 1999ApJ...525...31S; Lilly et al., 1998ApJ...500...75L) were already in place 8Gyr ago, leading to a very modest recent star formation (Brinchmann & Ellis, 2000ApJ...536L..77B) in intermediate mass galaxies (3-30*10^10^M_{sun}_). This is challenged by a recent analysis (Heavens et al., 2004Natur.428..625H) of the fossil record of the stellar populations of ~105 nearby galaxies, which shows that intermediate mass galaxies formed or assembled the bulk of their stars 4 to 8Gyr ago. Here we present direct observational evidence supporting this findings from a long term, multi-wavelength study of 195 z>0.4 intermediate mass galaxies, mostly selected from the Canada France Redshift Survey (CFRS, Cat. ).

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/430/115/table1 (Sample of distant galaxies)