Also known as Agoult

Where: Morocco (30.5° N, 4.8° W: paleocoordinates 17.8° N, 4.8° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Akrabou Formation, Late/Upper Cenomanian (99.6 - 93.5 Ma)

• There are no calcareous fossils in the Gara Sbaa Lagerstätte and, consequently, it has proved difficult to establish the precise age of the deposit. The underlying Kem Kem beds, in this region resting on folded Palaeozoic strata, has been dated as Albian or Cenomanian on account of its vertebrate remains. However, over most of the outcrop the vertebrate-bearing part of the Kem Kem beds is overlain by a series of variegated mudstones, thin sandstones and evaporites for which there is no age determination. These mudstones pass up into marls and shelly limestones and, at Gara Sbaa, into the fossiliferous laminated limestone described here. The marls and shelly limestones yield abundant examples of Ilymatogyra cf. africana, a bivalve that usually indicates a mid to early Late Cenomanian age (Ettachfini and Andreu, 2004; Dhondt and Jaillard, 2005). In the Goulmima region of southern Morocco laterally equivalent carbonates of the Akrabou Formation have been dated as Late Cenomanian to Turonian on account of their marine benthic and planktonic foraminiferan assemblages (Ettachfini and Andreu, 2004). It is highly likely that the Gara Sbaa Lagerstätte is of Late Cenomanian or Early Turonian age but because there are no strata overlying the laminites, a minimum age cannot be determined at this locality.

•Previously under Gara Sbaa member of the Akrabou Formation, but the Gara Sbaa unit is now considered a Formation, and is older than the Akrabou Formation (see Ibrahim et al. 2020)

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal or restricted shallow subtidal; lithified, dolomitic lime mudstone

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression, soft parts

Collection methods: Repository: Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano, Italy (MSNM)

Primary reference: A. Garassino, A. De Angeli, and G. Pasini. 2008. New decapod assemblage from the Upper Creaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) of Gara Sbaa, southeastern Morocco. Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano 149(1):37-67 [C. Schweitzer/E. Johnson/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 127539: authorized by Carrie Schweitzer, entered by Evaline Johnson on 17.05.2012, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)