Has Anyone A List Of (or Link To) The Fossil Fauna Of Khourigba, Morocco?

[Auspex]

I just acquired these four fragmentary bird bones and, despite their lack of defining characteristics, I'd like to at least try to narrow-down the ID pool. They are from a river delta deposit that was laid down between 96 and 65 million YBP. I have read somewhere of a wading bird having been described from the Khourigba phosphate mines, but it was only a mention of the fact. If anyone has a lead to info, I would much appreciate hearing from you!

[tracer]

um, you're kidding, right?

oh, well, hang on...I'll go google it... <sigh>

khourignba, right...

bbiam.

[mommabetts]

Tracer, I think you need to publish a dictionary so everyone nows what you are saying. Or that could be a new contest, look up your last 20 post with all the strange words and try and give definitions for them.

[tracer]

ok, i only got one hit, as you can imagine, and i called the guy, and he gave me the number to the people he deals with in khoribdeaga, so i called them, which was quite an experience. i think i woke them up, but anyway, i don't think they understood that i wanted to know about the "flap flap wade wade", but they did say they could have some more fossils for you just like the ones you bought by next wednesday. they seemed like great guys. they laughed a lot. things must be better over in europe than i thought...

regards,

tracer the bon vivant

[Fruitbat]

Auspex....

Here's a link to a web site (you've probably already found this one) Fossil vertebrates from the phosphate basins of Morocco

I did find one reference to an isolated Cretaceous bird vertebra from Morocco. There are a few more articles out there ( including one by E. Bourdon in particular) that might be of interest to you but they aren't freely accessible. As a side note...I did manage to find a few other articles (including the one regarding the bird vertebra that I mentioned above) while I was browsing that might pique your curiosity. I've listed them in the pdf section on Aves here on The Fossil Forum.

-Joe

[Auspex]

Thanks Joe!

Best leads so far; even the name of an author in the field can unlock good info.

[MB]

Thanks Joe!

Best leads so far; even the name of an author in the field can unlock good info.

Hi Auspex, here is a very good link but mainly sharteeth from Morocco

http://users.telenet.be/sharkteethcollection/morroco.htm

I never said you that a very good friend of mine are collecting bird fossils from Morocco?

[MB]

Hi Auspex, here is a very good link but mainly sharteeth from Morocco

http://users.telenet.be/sharkteethcollection/morroco.htm

I never said you that a very good friend of mine are collecting bird fossils from Morocco?

From Khourigba bassin, of course

[Auspex]

Hi Auspex, here is a very good link but mainly sharteeth from Morocco

http://users.telenet.be/sharkteethcollection/morroco.htm

I never said you that a very good friend of mine are collecting bird fossils from Morocco?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now you tell me!

Is there any chance of me knowing what he is finding? I am very keen on this, because Khourigba is one of the very few areas where fossiliferous sediment spans the K-T boundary (and with near-shore deposits as well). Being able to study the Paleocene radiation of birds in comparison against the avifauna of the preceding Cretaceous is the biggest challenge in paleoornithology!

[Fruitbat]

Auspex...

While they're not DIRECTLY related to your quest...I added an additional 8 papers to the list of Aves-related PDF files today. Some of them might be of interest regarding the Cretaceous-Paleocene transition for birds.

-Joe

[Auspex]

Auspex...

While they're not DIRECTLY related to your quest...I added an additional 8 papers to the list of Aves-related PDF files today. Some of them might be of interest regarding the Cretaceous-Paleocene transition for birds.

-Joe

Thanks!

I just tracked down the Tambussi paper, it's printing now!

As for progress on the Khourigba avian material, what I'm finding is that the taxonomy is extremely muddled, with reassignments of previously described taxa to whole different families, and the erection of "form taxa" in which to dump assemblages of unrelated but outwardly similar birds. This may take a while...

[Fruitbat]

Auspex...

Curses be upon you! Now that I've started looking through the available literature on birds I'm filling up my hard drive with PDF files!!! There are now a total of 42 new articles in the 'Bird' section of my PDF library here on The Fossil Forum! Gadzooks!!!

-Joe

[Auspex]

Auspex...

Curses be upon you! Now that I've started looking through the available literature on birds I'm filling up my hard drive with PDF files!!! There are now a total of 42 new articles in the 'Bird' section of my PDF library here on The Fossil Forum! Gadzooks!!!

-Joe

Paleoornithology is indeed a cursed endeavor! Keeps me busy, though...tracking down info is armchair fossil collecting at its finest

[tracer]

"Being able to study the Paleocene radiation of birds in comparison against the avifauna of the preceding Cretaceous is the biggest challenge in paleoornithology!"

as well it SHOULD be! but i would think the biggest problem with studying paleo birds would be trying to dig around in sky strata.

(can anybody tell me why my brain works this way and what can possibly be done about it?)

[fossilselachian]

[

(can anybody tell me why my brain works this way and what can possibly be done about it?)

I don't think you would want to know!!

[Auspex]

(can anybody tell me why my brain works this way and what can possibly be done about it?)

No, and Yes.