Quaternaire, 13, (1), 2002, p 43-53

PLIO-PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIAN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF ATLANTIC MOROCCO

Denis GERAADS*

ABSTRACT

RÉSUMÉ

BIOSTRATIGRAPHIE DES MAMMIFÈRES PLIO-PLÉISTOCÈNES DU MAROC ATLANTIQUE

Introduction

Although Quaternary Vertebrate remains have been known from Morocco for more than a century, there has been little systematic collecting. Over a long period, Mammalian fossils were collected by geologists without proper record of their exact provenance, context or associations, sometimes just as curiosities for Museum display. As a result, few reliable assemblages of large Mammal remains are available for research. Of these few significant samples from well-defined localities, I may cite those of Am Maarouf and Jebel Irhoud (Hominid

site). Arambourg's synthesis (1938) dealt mainly with the upper Pleistocene and includes many fossils of doubtful stratigraphie provenance.

The first serious attempt to establish a biochronology of Morocco and indeed, the whole Maghreb, was that of Jaeger who systematically collected Rodents which were studied by him (1971a & b, 1975, 1988) and Tong (1989). Unfortunately, most of Jaeger's localities lack large Mammal remains, so his framework cannot be extended to them.

In the late sixties, following the stratigraphie studies of Biberson (1961), attention focused on the Thomas

Manuscrit reçu le 08/10/2001, accepté le 02/12/2001