0aef255cc504dd9b8758255041940a6b foss-rec_article_175508_en_1.pdf fa7b0334297d8218e5425c8bce30ee2cda4539ac foss-rec_article_175508_en_1.pdf e7794f22fab2d45c5cf3f857efceeaaa152aaccd0aa8ebeb88d3b0698bc0dff1 foss-rec_article_175508_en_1.pdf Title: A new Late Miocene small vertebrate assemblage from the Ouarzazate Basin (High Atlas, Morocco) and its biochronological and paleoenvironmental significance Subject: The Ouarzazate Basin is located between the southern flank of the Central High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas mountains (in Morocco). The Neogene is primarily represented by the Aït Ouglif and Aït Kandoula alluvial formations, which are exposed in the Amekchoud section. Magnetostratigraphic data indicate a Middle to Late Miocene age for this sequence, from the upper Langhian to the Messinian. Despite extensive sampling, significant paleontological results were only obtained at level PAM 207, situated 773 m above the base of the Aït Kandoula formation. This level, characterized by reversed polarity, yielded a microvertebrate assemblage preliminarily described by Tesón et al. (2010). In this work we present a revised study of the small vertebrates from PAM 207, providing updated information on its faunal composition as well as new insights into the biostratigraphy and paleoenvironment of the locality. The assemblage includes fishes, amphibians, reptiles, insectivores, and rodents. Based on the rodent association, PAM 207 is slightly younger than Guefait 1 (Morocco) and close in age to Sidi Salem (Algeria), representing one of the oldest early Turolian localities in North Africa. It postdates Tafna 2 (9.1–8.7 Ma) and predates Amama 2 (7.7 Ma), supporting its correlation with chron C4r (8.77–8.12 Ma). Paleoenvironmental evidence suggests temperate freshwater habitats within an open landscape with a certain degree of vegetative cover, under relatively arid conditions. Overall, PAM 207 provides new evidence that contributes to the establishment of a chronologically constrained Late Miocene biochronological scheme for North Africa and enhances our understanding of paleoenvironments during this interval. Author: Pedro Piñero Creator: Adobe InDesign 21.0 (Windows) Producer: Adobe PDF Library 18.0 CreationDate: Mon Dec 1 09:43:21 2025 CET ModDate: Mon Dec 1 09:44:17 2025 CET Custom Metadata: no Metadata Stream: yes Tagged: yes UserProperties: no Suspects: no Form: none JavaScript: no Pages: 19 Encrypted: no Page size: 595.276 x 841.89 pts (A4) Page rot: 0 File size: 7520405 bytes Optimized: no PDF version: 1.4 name type encoding emb sub uni object ID ------------------------------------ ----------------- ---------------- --- --- --- --------- TXPXMM+TimesNewRomanPSMT CID TrueType Identity-H yes yes yes 1000 0 ZBNCSA+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT CID TrueType Identity-H yes yes yes 1014 0 JYQKCG+SymbolMT CID TrueType Identity-H yes yes yes 1021 0 PZPZIU+NewsGothicStd Type 1C Custom yes yes yes 1003 0 JYQKCG+FFMarkPro-Bold Type 1C WinAnsi yes yes yes 1022 0 DZSFWS+TimesNewRomanPSMT TrueType WinAnsi yes yes yes 1005 0 PZPZIU+NewsGothicMT TrueType WinAnsi yes yes yes 1006 0 JYQKCG+TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT TrueType WinAnsi yes yes yes 1015 0 UZYYAK+NewsGothicMT-Italic TrueType WinAnsi yes yes yes 1024 0 PZPZIU+NewsGothicStd Type 1C WinAnsi yes yes yes 62 0 UZYYAK+TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT TrueType WinAnsi yes yes yes 68 0 PZPZIU+NewsGothicStd Type 1C WinAnsi yes yes yes 65 0 UZYYAK+TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT CID TrueType Identity-H yes yes yes 76 0 XOKLQE+TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT TrueType WinAnsi yes yes yes 72 0 XOKLQE+TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT CID TrueType Identity-H yes yes yes 84 0 Jhove (Rel. 1.28.0, 2023-05-18) Date: 2025-12-07 03:07:40 CET RepresentationInformation: foss-rec_article_175508_en_1.pdf ReportingModule: PDF-hul, Rel. 1.12.4 (2023-03-16) LastModified: 2025-12-06 18:21:07 CET Size: 7520405 Format: PDF Version: 1.4 Status: Well-Formed and valid SignatureMatches: PDF-hul MIMEtype: application/pdf Profile: Tagged PDF PDFMetadata: Objects: 0 FreeObjects: 3 IncrementalUpdates: 0 DocumentCatalog: ViewerPreferences: HideToolbar: false HideMenubar: false HideWindowUI: false FitWindow: false CenterWindow: false DisplayDocTitle: false NonFullScreenPageMode: UseNone Direction: L2R ViewArea: CropBox ViewClip: CropBox PrintArea: CropBox PageClip: CropBox PageLayout: SinglePage PageMode: UseNone Language: en-US Outlines: Item: Title: A new Late Miocene small vertebrate assemblage from the Ouarzazate Basin (High Atlas, Morocco) and its biochronological and paleoenvironmental significance Item: Title: Abstract Item: Title: Introduction Children: Item: Title: Geological settings Item: Title: Material and methods Item: Title: Systematic palaeontology Item: Title: Luciobarbus sp. Item: Title: Barbini indet. Item: Title: Cyprinidae indet. Item: Title: Teleostei indet. Item: Title: Class Amphibia Gray, 1825 Item: Title: Gen. et sp. indet. Item: Title: Class Reptilia Laurenti, 1768 Item: Title: Ophisaurus sp. sensu lato Item: Title: Class Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758 Item: Title: Lartetium africanum (Lavocat, 1961) Item: Title: Order Rodentia Bowdich, 1821 Item: Title: Africanomys sp. Item: Title: Family Gerbillidae Alston, 1876 Item: Title: Zramys cf. salemi Jaeger, 1977 Item: Title: Genus Myocricetodon Lavocat, 1961 Item: Title: Myocricetodon cf. ouaichi Jaeger, 1977 Item: Title: Family Muridae Illiger, 1811 Item: Title: Progonomys mauretanicus Coiffait-Martin, 1991 Item: Title: Biochronological framework Item: Title: Paleoenvironmental reconstruction Item: Title: Conclusions Item: Title: Competing interests Item: Title: Authors’ contributions Item: Title: Acknowledgements Item: Title: References Filters: FilterPipeline: FlateDecode FilterPipeline: DCTDecode Images: Image: NisoImageMetadata: FormatName: image/jpg CompressionScheme: JPEG ImageWidth: 2500 ImageHeight: 2627 ColorSpace: CMYK BitsPerSample: 8 BitsPerSampleUnit: integer Intent: RelativeColorimetric Name: X Image: NisoImageMetadata: FormatName: image/jpg CompressionScheme: JPEG ImageWidth: 1961 ImageHeight: 1884 ColorSpace: CMYK BitsPerSample: 8 BitsPerSampleUnit: integer Intent: RelativeColorimetric 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TXPXMM+TimesNewRomanPSMT Flags: Serif, Symbolic FontBBox: -568, -307, 2028, 1007 FontFile2: true Font: BaseFont: UZYYAK+TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT CIDSystemInfo: Registry: Adobe Registry: Identity Supplement: 0 FontDescriptor: FontName: UZYYAK+TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT Flags: Serif, Symbolic FontBBox: -558, -328, 2000, 1056 FontFile2: true XMP: application/pdf A new Late Miocene small vertebrate assemblage from the Ouarzazate Basin (High Atlas, Morocco) and its biochronological and paleoenvironmental significance The Ouarzazate Basin is located between the southern flank of the Central High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas mountains (in Morocco). The Neogene is primarily represented by the Aït Ouglif and Aït Kandoula alluvial formations, which are exposed in the Amekchoud section. Magnetostratigraphic data indicate a Middle to Late Miocene age for this sequence, from the upper Langhian to the Messinian. Despite extensive sampling, significant paleontological results were only obtained at level PAM 207, situated 773 m above the base of the Aït Kandoula formation. This level, characterized by reversed polarity, yielded a microvertebrate assemblage preliminarily described by Tesón et al. (2010). In this work we present a revised study of the small vertebrates from PAM 207, providing updated information on its faunal composition as well as new insights into the biostratigraphy and paleoenvironment of the locality. The assemblage includes fishes, amphibians, reptiles, insectivores, and rodents. Based on the rodent association, PAM 207 is slightly younger than Guefait 1 (Morocco) and close in age to Sidi Salem (Algeria), representing one of the oldest early Turolian localities in North Africa. It postdates Tafna 2 (9.1–8.7 Ma) and predates Amama 2 (7.7 Ma), supporting its correlation with chron C4r (8.77–8.12 Ma). Paleoenvironmental evidence suggests temperate freshwater habitats within an open landscape with a certain degree of vegetative cover, under relatively arid conditions. Overall, PAM 207 provides new evidence that contributes to the establishment of a chronologically constrained Late Miocene biochronological scheme for North Africa and enhances our understanding of paleoenvironments during this interval. Pedro Piñero et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Pedro Piñero Jordi Agustí Hugues-Alexandre Blain Ángel Blanco-Lapaz Eliseo Tesón Antonio Teixell Marc Furió Anura biostratigraphy Cypriniformes Eulipotyphla paleoecology Rodentia Squamata 2025-12-01T10:43:21+02:00 2025-12-01T10:44:17+02:00 2025-12-01T10:44:17+02:00 Adobe InDesign 21.0 (Windows) uuid:2b0d7f76-3ccf-4500-b0d9-f08845ec7d80 xmp.did:9F28E084BD8CE31184EC999A5D291C94 xmp.id:7d909fc5-833c-2343-a962-85828ae54984 proof:pdf xmp.iid:e94bae72-15d2-404c-9c09-a97d33ff444f xmp.did:4444FC51923DE811ADBCA6C78E600139 xmp.did:9F28E084BD8CE31184EC999A5D291C94 default converted from application/x-indesign to application/pdf Adobe InDesign 21.0 (Windows) / 2025-12-01T10:43:21+02:00 Adobe PDF Library 18.0 False Pages: Page: Label: 377 Sequence: 1 Annotations: Annotation: Subtype: Link Rect: 51, 495, 262, 484 Annotation: Subtype: Link Rect: 166, 477, 227, 466 Annotation: Subtype: Link Rect: 302, 57, 435, 49 Page: Label: 378 Sequence: 2 Page: Label: 379 Sequence: 3 Page: Label: 380 Sequence: 4 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