RT Journal Article
T1 A new early Visean coral assemblage from Azrou-Khenifra Basin, central Morocco and palaeobiogeographic implications
A1 Rodríguez, Sergio
A1 Somerville, Ian D.
A1 Cózar, Pedro
A1 Sanz López, Javier
A1 Coronado, Ismael
A1 González Barrionuevo, Felipe
A1 Said, Ismail
A1 El Houicha, Mohamed
AB A new early Visean coral assemblage has been recorded from turbidite facies in the southern part of the Azrou-Khenifra Basin, northwest of Khenifra, central Morocco. The newly discovered Ba Moussa West (BMW) coral faunaincludes Siphonophyllia khenifrense sp. nov., Sychnoelasma urbanowitschi, Cravenia lamellata, Cravenia tela, Craveniarhytoides, Turnacipora megastoma and Pleurosiphonella crustosa. The early Visean age of the coral assemblage issupported by foraminiferal and conodont data, with the recognition of the basal Visean MFZ9 Zone. This confirmsthat the first transgression in the Azrou-Khenifra Basin was during the earliest Visean. The allochthonous coralassemblage was recovered from coarse-grained proximal limestone debris flow and turbidite beds within a faultboundedunit, lying to the west of a thrust syncline containing upper Visean limestones. No evidence exists of theformer early Visean shallow-water platform from which the corals were derived. All other in situ platform carbonaterocks around the southern margin of the Azrou-Khenifra Basin are probably of late Visean (Asbian–Brigantian) age.The early Visean Ba Moussa West coral fauna can be compared with that at Tafilalt in eastern Morocco, as well as inother Saharian basins of Algeria. Many of the genera and species in the Ba Moussa West assemblage are identicalto those in NW Europe, with which it must have had marine connections. The new rugose species described,Siphonophyllia khenifrense, is probably endemic to North Africa. Its ecological niche in NW Europe was occupied byS. cylindrica or S. aff. garwoodi.
PB SpringerOpen
SN 2095-3836
YR 2020
FD 2020-02
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/17870
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/17870
LA eng
NO Rodríguez, S., Somerville, I. D., Cózar, P., Sanz López, J., Coronado, I., González Barrionuevo, F., … El Houicha, M. (2020). A new early Visean coral assemblage from Azrou-Khenifra Basin, central Morocco and palaeobiogeographic implications. Journal of Palaeogeography, 9(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s42501-019-0051-5
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026