Also known as Agoult
Where: Er Rachida, 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 dolomite
Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils
Preservation: mold/impression, adpression, soft parts
Collected in 2008
Collection methods: surface (float), surface (in situ),
• "The preliminary report presented here describes a newly recognised fossil Konservat Lagerstätte that was explored with personnel from University College Dublin, Casablanca University and the University of Portsmouth during November and December 2008"
Primary reference: D. M. Martill, N. Ibrahim, P. M. Brito, L. Baider, S. Zhouri, R. Loveridge, D. Naish and R. Hing. 2011. A new Plattenkalk Konservat Lagerstätte in the Upper Cretaceous of Gara Sbaa, south-eastern Morocco. Cretaceous Research 32:433-446 [M. Clapham/J. Karr]more details
Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis
PaleoDB collection 120457: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Jered Karr on 12.11.2011
Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)
Taxonomic list
Insecta | |
Chrysididae indet. Latreille 1802 cuckoo wasp | |
Malacostraca | |
cf. Marocarcinus pasinii Guinot et al. 2008 crab | |
Isopoda indet. Latreille 1817 isopod | |
Reptilia | |
? Lacertilia indet. lizard This specimen was sold to a fossil dealer and its present whereabouts is not known. The specimen appears to represent an unidentified lizard
| |
Actinopteri | |
Agoultichthys chattertoni Murray and Wilson 2009 | |
aff. Lusitanichthys sp. Gavet 1980 herring | |
aff. Ellimmichthys sp. Jordan and Gilbert 1919 | |
Diplomystus sp. Cope 1877 | |
Saurorhamphus sp. Heckel 1850 | |
Rhynchodercetis sp. Arambourg 1943 | |
"Acanthomorpha indet." = Acanthomorphata
"Acanthomorpha indet." = Acanthomorphata Rosen 1973 | |
| |
Belonostomus sp. Agassiz 1834 | |
| |
unclassified | |
Pteridophyta indet. Haeckel 1875 |