First occurrence of tetrapod footprints from the continental Triassic of the Sidi Said Maachou area (Western Meseta, Morocco) Abdelkbir Hminna a,⇑ , Sebastian Voigt b , Hendrik Klein c , Hafid Saber a , Jörg W. Schneider d , Driss Hmich a a Geodynamic and Variscan Geosciences Laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences, Chouaïb Doukkali University, B.P. 20, 24000 El Jadida, Morocco b Urweltmuseum GEOSKOP, Burg Lichtenberg (Pfalz), Burgstr. 19, 66871 Thallichtenberg, Germany c Saurierwelt Paläontologisches Museum, Alte Richt 7, D-92318 Neumarkt, Germany d Geological Institute, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, B.-v.-Cotta-Str. 2, 09596 Freiberg, Germany article info Article history: Received 17 April 2012 Received in revised form 22 October 2012 Accepted 2 November 2012 Available online 15 November 2012 Keywords: Brachychirotherium Playa Biostratigraphy Late Triassic North Africa abstract The Sidi Said Maachou area in the Moroccan western Meseta preserves a succession, up to 400 m thick, of hitherto poorly studied continental Triassic deposits. Recent detailed geological mapping proposes a lithostratigraphic subdivision of the predominantly red-coloured siliciclastic deposits into three forma- tions. Laminated mudstones and fine-grained sandstones in the upper part of the Oued Oum Er Rbiaa For- mation have the most interesting fossil content including plant impressions, rhizoliths, fish scales, and invertebrate and vertebrate traces. These biogenic remains are partially associated with tool marks, microbially induced sedimentary structures, oscillation ripples, desiccation cracks, and halite pseud- omorphs, suggesting sedimentation in a playa-like, fluvio-lacustrine system under semiarid conditions. All tetrapod footprints from these beds are assigned to Brachychirotherium parvum and indistinguishable from other occurrences of the ichnogenus in Central Europe and North America. Supposed trackmakers are archosaurs of the crocodile stem-group (Crurotarsi) that were widely spread over Triassic Pangaea. Because Brachychirotherium is only known from Late Triassic (Carnian–Rhaetian) deposits, the same age is attributed to the footprint horizon of the Oued Oum Er Rbiaa Formation. This is the first record of Brachychirotherium on the African continent and the first record of Triassic tetrapod footprints in Mor- occo outside of the High Atlas. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Tetrapod footprints from the Triassic of Morocco were first mentioned in the second half of the 20th century from the Argana Basin of the western High Atlas region (Jones, 1975; Dutuit, 1976). Shortly afterwards, Biron and Dutuit (1981) reported on more finds from this area and questionable Middle to Late Triassic footprints of the Ourika Basin in the High Atlas of Marrakech. Recently, di- verse assemblages of well-preserved tetrapod footprints were re- corded in Early and Middle Triassic red beds of the Argana Basin (Klein et al., 2009, 2010, 2011; Voigt et al., 2011). The only other occurrences of Early Mesozoic tetrapod footprints in North Africa concern supposed Early Triassic deposits in Niger (Ginsburg et al., 1968; Taquet, 1976) and Middle Triassic deposits in Algeria (Kotanski et al., 2004). Previous studies of the geology of the Sidi Said Maachou area were focused on large-scale lithostratigraphy and volcanic petrog- raphy and geochemistry (Gigout, 1951, 1956; El Attari, 2001; Bensalah et al., 2011). Palaeontological data from this region are scarce and are absent for the up to 400 m thick Triassic section. In this paper, we give the first detailed lithostratigraphic descrip- tion of the Triassic of the Sidi Said Maachou area and report on the discovery of biostratigraphically important tetrapod footprints in these beds. All fossils described herein are housed in the collec- tion of the Department of Earth Sciences, Chouaïb Doukkali Univer- sity El Jadida, Morocco (CDUE). 2. Geological setting The approximately 40 km 2 study area, named after its small central village Sidi Said Maachou, is located in the coastal uplift of the Moroccan western Meseta about 45 km southeast of El Jadi- da (Fig. 1). Geological interest of this domain is based on numerous outcrops of pre-Cenozoic rocks along the valley of the Oued Oum Er Rbiaa that flows from SE to NW through the study area. Along the northern, eastern and south-eastern border of the area Triassic sediments unconformably overlie Palaeozoic (Cambrian and Devo- 1464-343X/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2012.11.003 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +212 06 69 05 57 50; fax: +212 5 23 34 21 87. E-mail addresses: hminna_abdelkbir@yahoo.fr (A. Hminna), s.voigt@pfalzmuseum. bv-pfalz.de (S. Voigt), Hendrik.Klein@combyphone.eu (H. Klein), hafidsaber@ yahoo.fr (H. Saber), schneidj@geo.tu-freiberg.de (J.W. Schneider), hmich@gmx. net (D. Hmich). Journal of African Earth Sciences 80 (2013) 1–7 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of African Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jafrearsci