Ouled Abdoun Basin
Phosphate basin in Morocco
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Through Fossil
Geography
The Oulad Abdoun is located west of the Atlas Mountains, near the city of Khouribga. The Oulad Abdoun phosphate deposits encompass some 100 by 45 kilometres (62 by 28 mi), an area of 4,500 square kilometres (1,700 sq mi). The Oulad Abdoun is the largest and northernmost of Morocco's major phosphate basins, which from northeast to southwest, include the Ganntour, Meskala, and Oued Eddahab (Laayoune-Baa) basins.
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Paleobiota
The Oulad Abdoun Basin stretches from the late Cretaceous to the Eocene and contains abundant marine vertebrate fossils, including sharks, bony fish, turtles, crocodilians, and other reptiles, as well as sea birds and a small number of terrestrial mammals.
Molluscs
Fish
Bony fish
Sharks
Other cartilaginous fish
Dinosaurs
Ornithischians
Sauropods
Theropods
Abelisaurs
Birds
Bird fossils are common in the Basin, which includes the oldest birds in Africa. At least three orders and several families of sea birds are represented, including Procellariiformes (albatrosses and petrels, fossils assignable to Diomedeidae and Procellariidae), Pelecaniformes (pelicans and allies, fossils assignable to Phaethontidae, Prophaethontidae, Fregatidae and Pelagornithidae), and Anseriformes (waterfowl, including fossil Presbyornithidae).
Pterosaurs
Crocodylomorphs
Squamates
Mosasaurs
The late Maastrichtian deposits of the Khouribga Phosphates preserve abundant mosasaur fossils, especially isolated teeth. At least fifteen species are represented, covering the majority of ecological niches the group is known to have occupied. The Ouled Abdoun Basin is one of the richest known mosasaur fossil sites in the world.
Snakes
Varanoids
Plesiosaurs
Plesiosaur material found in the Ouled Abdoun Basin has been referred to one valid species, Zarafasaura oceanis. Isolated elasmosaurid fossils may all belong to this species but comparison is difficult.