Lower Bathonian brachiopods from the Folded Middle Atlas, Boulemane Area (Morocco)

In the folded Middle Atlas belt, the Middle Jurassic sequence is often rich in brachiopods. A Bathonian section (Sidi L’Arbi) located 1 km northwest of the village of Boulemane has been studied. This section contains, in its upper part, immediately above a sandy limestone bed, two closely spaced stratigraphic levels rich in lower Bathonian brachiopods. This brachiopod fauna is widely dominated by rhynchonellids, mainly the genera Kallirhynchia and Burmirhynchia, and contains rare terebratulids, bivalves, and gastropods. The silty marl and silty limestone facies of the two fossiliferous levels and the upper part of the section suggest a relatively shallow marine environment, preceding the emergence, from the latest Bathonian, of all the Moroccan Jurassic basins located east of the Western Moroccan Meseta.