Red Fauna Research Articles

Oases of biodiversity: Early Devonian palaeoecology at Hamar Laghdad, Morocco

The mudmound locality of Hamar Laghdad (Tafilalt Platform) contains possibly the greatest palaeobiodiversity, both horizontally in the surrounding sediments and stratigraphically through the Devonian sedimentary succession of the Moroccan eastern Anti-Atlas. From the Ordovician to the Devonian, sediments of the Hamar Laghdad region and their fossil contents tend to differ slightly from those in time-equivalent strata of other parts of the Tafilalt Platform. Our research provides a description of the sedimentological and palaeontological record at Hamar Laghdad covering the Lochkovian to Givetian interval. We use alpha-diversity data based on macrofossils from selected fossiliferous strata and compare the results with the relative abundance of bioclasts in polished slabs. We show that the palaeobiodiversity at Hamar Laghdad was similar to that of the southern Tafilalt with a normal diversity during the Pragian, i.e.prior to mudmound initiation and growth. By contrast, the layers covering the mudmound carbonates (i.e.when their activity had ceased) show a high diversity during the latest Emsian with a trophic nucleus comprising 36 species. This fauna, here exemplified by the 'Red Fauna' (from the Red Cliff), is dominated by benthic suspension feeders (corals, brachiopods and crinoids) and cephalopods. The shift in biodiversity is most likely related to the local occurrence of a favourable environmental setting, characterized by a temporally and spatially varying topography. It is assumed that this setting was influenced by sea-level fluctuations, currents and nutrient availability.

Trilobites from the Red Fauna (latest Emsian, Devonian) of Hamar Laghdad, Morocco and their biodiversity

Trilobites are widespread in Early Devonian deposits of north Gondwana; some of the most emblematic ones were collected from the famous latest Emsian (Early Devonian) mudmound locality Hamar Laghdad in south-eastern Morocco. This locality is famous for its trilobites, especially for the conspicuous red-coloured remains of phacopid trilobites with often greenish eyes. Here, we present a taxonomic revision of the previously described trilobites from the so-called Red Fauna of Hamar Laghdad. We introduce the new taxa Harpes hamarlaghdadensis n. sp. and Morocops davidbrutoni n. sp. Phacopids dominate the trilobite assemblage from the Red Cliff at Hamar Laghdad in terms of the number of specimens (represented by Morocops) as a whole. Additionally, we focus on the description of trilobite diversity of this interval compared to Algerian assemblages.