Recognition trip to the Ifezouane Formation, South of Morocco

[Juan A. Poblador]

Hello everyone!

 

Details of an outcrop of the Ifezouane Fm (Upper Cretaceous- Lower Cenomanian) in southern Morocco. This outcrop is very close to the border with Algeria. Sandstones and gravels have very well defined sedimentary structures, mainly cross stratification.

 

Are a clear indicator of the current regime that possessed those ancient and enormous systems of braided rivers. In one of the photos you can also see one of the artificial tunnels excavated by local miners in search of large vertebrates, quite abundant!

 

However, this type of sediment, deposited in a relatively high energy ...., accumulated the remains of many animals dragged by the current, also eroded and disarticulated. That is why it is very common to find isolated teeth and bones. But rarely articulated.

 

The red color of a sediment that is seen in one of the photos is not Cretaceous! It is a recent breach deposited above the Cretaceous that lies at the foot of the slope.

 

Greetings

 

Juan

[Fossildude19]

Interesting area, Juan.

Thanks for showing it to us.  

Regards, 

[ynot]

It is nice to see what the Kemkem beds look like, Thanks for sharing.

But where are the fossils?

Tony

[taj]

well , just start to sift through the loose piles of sand/sandstone turned sand local diggers have removed in their search for the "big ones " , and you might get some nice surprises ( up to 3 cm ...)

[ynot]

17 minutes ago, taj said:

well , just start to sift through the loose piles of sand/sandstone turned sand local diggers have removed in their search for the "big ones " , and you might get some nice surprises ( up to 3 cm ...)

I should have been more exact in My query. 

Where are the pictures of the fossils that were found on this trip?

[Juan A. Poblador]

In my last expeditions, I am concentrating all my efforts on the detailed mapping of the Ifezouane Formation, in the northeastern sectors of the outcroppings of the Basin, without having too much time to focus on the exhaustive search for fossils.

 

There are few papers that possess good cartographies of these Cretaceous, mainly of the lower levels corresponding to the Ifezouane Fm. And the latest published cartography treats the Cretaceous in an undifferentiated way on the map. In detail, and that is only the personal opinion of my work as a Geologist, I think that the Ifezouane Formation possesses some easily differentiable units in some sectors ....., but it has many lateral changes of facies and the cartography is a complicated work. Especially in that place, where everything is a little more difficult than here in Europe.

 

But of course there have been many interesting fossils in my way! Here's an example; It is a diaphysis of a long, unidentifiable bone because the epiphyses are missing!

I hope I have quenched your thirst for bones! : P  , excuse my face in the photo, it was a long day and with the desert sun on my face.

 

It's true! ... the sifting of the gravel and sand usually gives very good surprises. The only problem is that there, having my limited time and money, I can not take all the samples that I would like. But in several sectors I did collect more than 10 kg to sift.

Here I enclose a picture of one of the surprises I took and I still have to study! In a same sample "in situ", I found out several vertebrae with clear ophidian morphology. They seem to be from the same specimen.

I hope to have more time to dedicate myself more in detail with all these "little gems" that were appearing along the way.

 

In the section of Fossil ID, I will upload some things soon to see if you lend me a hand with the ID!

 

Regards

 

Juan

[ynot]

Sweet! Thanks for the pictures! (would love to see more of the stuff in the micromatrix.)

Good luck with Your studies.

Tony

[Juan A. Poblador]

This is another jewel I still have to study! It's a wonder I still have not been able to identify. It is a pemaxilar.

[TNCollector]

Wow that is awesome! I love those fossils you are finding.