First record of permian continental trace fossils in the jebilet massif, Morocco

Abstract

The south-central Moroccan Jebilet Massif comprises several occurrences of late Paleozoic continental red-beds. These deposits have been interpreted to be of Pennsylvanian-Permian age based on lithofacies. Any other reliable age constraint for these rocks was hitherto lacking. Recent fieldwork in late Paleozoic red-beds of the Koudiat El Hamra - Haiane Basin, near the center of the Jebilet Massif, yielded a remarkable association of continental trace fossils. The assemblage includes invertebrate traces (Helminthoidichnites tenuis, Scoyenia gracilis, Sphaerapus larvalis and cf. Spongeliomorpha isp.) as well as tetrapod footprints (cf. Batrachichnus isp, Dromopus lacertoides, Hyloidichnus bifurcatus and cf. Tambachichnium isp.). The tetrapod footprints suggest a late early Permian (Artinskian) to middle Permian (Capitanian) age of the fossil-bearing strata. The Koudiat El Hamra - Haiane fossil ichnofauna is similar to the one from the north-central Moroccan Tiddas Basin, leading to the possibility that both basins developed contemporaneously.