Abstract
Abstract
Intense commercial exploitation of fossils in the famous El Qaid Errami area in the last 20 years has led to the discovery of the interesting Declivolithus Fauna in the Moroccan Anti-Atlas. This unusually large trinucleid trilobite, described originally from the Czech Republic, is the most conspicuous element of an assemblage mainly occurring in the Bofloss locality, a local biofacies development of pelagic mudstones and sandstones cropping out in a structurally isolated place in the Tizi n'Ounfite area. Here we revise this Declivolithus Fauna trilobite assemblage from Morocco, increasing the known trilobite diversity from four to 11 species: Ulugtella? biformis n. sp., Selenopeltis cf. S. vultuosa, Phacopidina quadrata, Eudolatites cf. E. bondoni, Prionocheilus cf. P. verneuili, Nobiliasaphus cf. N. kumatox, Cyclopyge cf. C. rediviva, Symphysops stevaninae, Heterocyclopyge sp., Dionide sp., and Declivolithus alfredi. The new data and the very good preservation of specimens in sandstones, clarify the specific identity of previously reported taxa. Although the stratigraphical correlation of the fossiliferous levels remains problematic, it probably corresponds to the upper part of the Lower Ktaoua Formation or to the lower half of the Upper Tiouririne Formation. Most taxa support previous assignment of the Moroccan assemblage to the late Berounian (ca. early Katian, Ka2), although a middle Berounian (ca. Sa2–Ka1) age cannot be excluded. Most of the identified species are known from the Czech Republic (eight out of 11), showing that the strong faunal link between Morocco and the Czech Republic still existed during the Late Ordovician, being stronger than the link with the coeval Ibero-Armorican domain faunas.
UUID: http://zoobank.org/3e6e55c7-168d-4008-98ba-38a795581ca3
Funder
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Reference156 articles.
1. Phacopina und Cheirurina (Trilobita) aus dem Ordovizium von Spanien;Hammann;Senckenbergiana Lethaea,1974
2. A revision of the Portuguese Ordovician Odontopleuridae (Trilobita);Romano;Selenopeltis and Primaspis: Comunicações dos Servicos Geológicos de Portugal,1982
3. 24. Trilobites
4. Classification des Trilobites;Hupé;Annales de Paléontologie,1953
5. Versuch einer Neueinteilung der Trilobiten;Gürich;Zentralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie,1907