Late Carboniferous Tetrapod Footprints from the Souss Basin, Western High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

ABSTRACT

The Late Carboniferous Souss Basin of south-central Morocco exhibits an approximately 1,800 m thick succession of fluvial and lacustrine deposits that have yielded diverse fossil remains of plants, insects, conchostracans, ostracods, jellyfish, fishes, and few tetrapod footprints. Recent exploration of ichnofossils of the Souss Basin led to the discovery of several trampled surfaces including tetrapod footprints assigned to the plexus Batrachichnus (Woodworth, 1900). Limnopus (Marsh, 1894), Dimetropus (Romer and Price, 1940), and Ichniotherium (Pohlig, 1892). These footprints can be referred to temnospondyl, basal synapsid (“pelycosaurian”), and diadectomorph trackmakers. The moderately diverse tetrapod footprint assemblage from the Souss Basin is important because it is the second-oldest record of tetrapod footprints from Africa and only the second record of the well-known ichnogenus Ichniotherium from outside of North America and Europe. Based on the variety of tetrapod tracks and previously collected floral and insect remains, the Souss Basin must have represented a well-established continental ecosystem during the Late Carboniferous.

KEYWORDS:

• Vertebrate ichnofossils
• Late Palaeozoic
• NW Africa
• Palaeoecology
• Palaeobiogeography

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Giuseppe Santi and Paolo Citton for their constructive reviews and the journal's associate editor, Jerry D. Harris, for helpful comments that improved this work. The Faculty of Sciences of the Chouaïb Doukkali University El Jadida kindly provided logistical support during field trips.

Funding

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is thanked for PhD study grants to the first author (DAAD-Project A/10/98161) and to A. Belahmira (DAAD-Project A/10/9816). J.W. Schneider acknowledges the financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) by the grant DFG SCHN 408/21.