5 km southeast of Gara Sbaa (Cretaceous of Morocco)

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

• "The Gara Sbaa fossil locality represents a shallow marine plattenkalk Konservat Lagerstätte deposited during the latest Cenomanian marine transgression, perhaps under the influence of widespread oceanic anoxia. Its fossil assemblage is dominated by marine fishes with rarer input from nearby terrestrial sources."
• The fossil-bearing parts of the Gara Sbaa laminites are restricted to a fewhorizons within the finely laminated dolomitised limestone with laminae of just 1e2 mm in thickness. In the middle to upper part of the unit the laminae are planar with few interruptions, but toward the base some bedding planes exhibit ripple marks with wave lengths of w50 mm

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

unclassified
  -
Pteridophyta indet. Haeckel 1875
Insecta
 Hymenoptera - Chrysididae
Chrysididae indet. Latreille 1802 cuckoo wasp
Malacostraca
 Decapoda - Aethridae
cf. Marocarcinus pasinii Guinot et al. 2008 crab
 Eumalacostraca -
Isopoda indet. Latreille 1817 isopod
Reptilia
 Squamata -
? 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
 Pycnodontiformes - Pycnodontidae
Pycnodus sp. Agassiz 1833
new species
 Semionotiformes - Macrosemiidae
Agoultichthys chattertoni Murray and Wilson 2009
 Aulopiformes - Eurypholidae
Saurorhamphus sp. Heckel 1850
 Aulopiformes - Dercetidae
Rhynchodercetis sp. Arambourg 1943
 Acanthomorphata -
"Acanthomorpha indet." = Acanthomorphata
"Acanthomorpha indet." = Acanthomorphata Rosen 1973
 Ellimmichthyiformes -
Diplomystus sp. Cope 1877
 Ellimmichthyiformes - Ellimmichthyidae
aff. Ellimmichthys sp. Jordan and Gilbert 1919
 Clupeiformes - Clupeoidei
aff. Lusitanichthys sp. Gavet 1980 herring
 Ichthyodectiformes - Cladocyclidae
Cladocyclus sp. Agassiz 1843
new species
 Aspidorhynchiformes - Aspidorhynchidae
Belonostomus sp. Agassiz 1834