High Atlas Mountains (Cambrian of Morocco)

Where: Morocco (31.1° N, 7.9° W: paleocoordinates 66.3° S, 111.4° E)

• coordinate based on political unit

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Bailiella levyi trilobite zone, Bailiella Formation, Middle Cambrian (509.0 - 497.0 Ma)

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; lithified, nodular, green, calcareous shale and fine-grained, micaceous, nodular, shelly/skeletal sandstone

• Depositional environments of the formation are poorly known. Lower energy environments than those of the underlying Rich Khlifa Formation are represented by the Bailiella Formation although progressive wave activity is recorded towards the top of the formation. The fossil hash beds probably represent sorting by storm-wave activity, and the marly layers represent either early diagenetic carbonate dissolution and redistribution or methanogenic nodules.
• ... lower green shales that grade upward into fine-grained, micaceous sandstones with a significant component of shell fragments and mud flakes. Numerous calcareous layers that include marly beds with shell hash („lumachelle“) or arenaceous, calcareous nodules are present and create the banded aspect of the outcrops. A particularly common faunal element of the calcareous is the name-giving trilobite Bailiella levyi.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: replaced with calcite

Collection methods: Only includes brachiopods for genus/species descriptions.

Primary reference: S. Zamora. 2009. Equinodermos del Cámbrico medio de las Cadenas Ibéricas y de la zona Cantábrica (Norte de España). 1-307 [P. Wagner/P. Wagner]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 198941: authorized by Pete Wagner, entered by Pete Wagner on 20.01.2019

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Cincta
  - Sucocystidae
"Sucocystis undata" = Undatacinctus undata
"Sucocystis undata" = Undatacinctus undata Friedrich 1993