A new genus and species of Tanaidacea (Crustacea, Apseudomorpha) from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) of Gara Sbaa, southeastern Morocco

Abstract

We report Afroapseudes cretacicus n. gen., n. sp. (Tanaidacea Dana, 1849; Apseudomorpha Sieg, 1980) from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) of the Gara Sbaa layers (southeastern Morocco). The new species is considered as a possible lineage between the Jurassic and the more recent Paleogene Apseudomorpha, partially covering the wide gap of tanaidacean fossil records between Mesozoic and Cenozoic forms. At the same time, this results to be the first fossil record of a tanaidacean from Africa, enlarging the scarce knowledge on the real diversity and distribution of this poorly reported crustacean group during the geological times.