The N’kob Biota (Middle Ordovician, Morocco): An exceptional window into high-latitude marine ecosystems
The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event represents one of the most important diversifications of marine life. Konservat-Lagerstätten (localities that yield exceptionally preserved fossils of lightly and non-biomineralized organisms) present a unique opportunity to understand the full scope of such an event, yet they are somewhat limited in the Ordovician compared to the Cambrian. We report the N’kob Biota, a new Middle Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätte from Morocco. The assemblage contains articulated echinoderms, trilobites, brachiopods, hyoliths, mollusks, cnidarians, graptolites, and lightly biomineralized organisms, including paleoscolecids, marrellomorphs, and other weakly sclerotised arthropods. This site fills a critical temporal gap in exceptionally preserved biotas between the Early Ordovician Fezouata Biota and the Late Ordovician Tafilalt Biota. The N’kob Biota retains few Cambrian-type holdovers while showcasing the rapid diversification of typical Ordovician suspension feeders. This suggests that the replacement of the Cambrian-type fauna by the Paleozoic-type fauna was more gradual in high-latitude Gondwana than previously thought.
Authors
- Mohamed Ait Haddou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0587-1230)
- Bertrand Lefèbvre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3803-9176)
- Pierre Guériau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7529-3456)
- Ayoub Fatihi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8572-6553)
- Sinéad Lynch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8408-6444)
- Gaëtan J.-M. Potin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1004-3727)
- Yu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4580-4083)
- Valentin Jamart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7153-0709)
- Allison C. Daley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5369-5879)
- Harriet B. Drage (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0759-5970)
- Farid Saleh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9165-985X)
- Lukáš Laibl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9049-3811)
- J. C. Gutiérrez-Marco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4213-6144)
- Nora Corthésy
- Ismail Khardali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9935-4289)
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
- Northwest University (CN)
- Université Ibn Zohr (MA)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geology (CZ)
- Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon : Terre, Planètes et Environnement (FR)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geology
- Published
- 2026-08-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1130/g54611.1
- Primary Topic
- Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00