AHL AL OUGHLAM

A LATE PLIOCENE VERTEBRATE LOCALITY IN MOROCCO

The locality of Ahl al Oughlam, discovered in 1985, and excavated since 1989, is by far the richest late Neogene vertebrate locality of North Africa. This page provides many data, some of them still unpublished, about the site: organization of the research program, bibliographic references, faunal list with many details on individual taxa: illustrations, measurements, diagnoses of new taxa, etc.

The excavations at Ahl al Oughlam are part of a Franco-Moroccan co-operation program, between the

"Programme Casablanca", led by Fatima-Zohra Sbihi-Alaoui of the "Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine" (INSAP) of Rabat, Morocco (dir: J.Hassar Benslimane), and the

"Mission Littoral" (dir: Jean-Paul Raynal) of the French Ministère des Affaires Etrangères.

They are conducted by Denis Geraads, UPR 2147, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 44 rue de l'Amiral Mouchez, 75014 PARIS

Also took part in the excavations:

Fethi Amani, Abderrahim Mohib, Rochdi Bernoussi, Jean-Paul Raynal

and especially Abdeslam and Abdelali.

The site is dated to ca 2.5 million years (M.a.), and has yielded almost 80 species of Vertebrates, mostly Mammals (but no Hominid !), and many birds. All fossil material is in the care of INSAP, Avenue J.Kennedy, Rabat-Souissi, Morocco.

You may now wish to know more about the geographic or geological context

Or you may directly go to the faunal list, with links to many individual taxa.

Below is the list of all publications relating to the site:

BIBERSON P. 1961. Le cadre paléogéographique de la Préhistoire du Maroc Atlantique, Publ.Serv.Antiq.Maroc, 16, 1961.

RAYNAL J.-P., TEXIER J.-P., GERAADS D. & SBIHI-ALAOUI F.-Z. 1990. Un nouveau gisement paléontologique du Plio-Pléistocène du Maroc: Ahl al Oughlam (ancienne carrière Deprez). C. R. Acad. Sc.,Paris, sér.II, 310: 315-320.

GERAADS D. 1993. Kolpochoerus phacochoeroides (THOMAS, 1884)(Suidae, Mammalia), du Pliocène supérieur de Ahl al Oughlam (Casablanca, Maroc). Géobios, Lyon, 26(6): 731-743.

RAYNAL J.-P. & GERAADS D. 1994. Le problème patrimonial qui se pose à Casablanca. Actes du Coll.CNRS: "L'objet archéologique africain et son devenir": p.49-57.

GERAADS D. 1995. Rongeurs et Insectivores du Pliocène final de Ahl al Oughlam, Casablanca, Maroc. Géobios, Lyon, 28 (1): 99-115.

RAYNAL J.-P., MAGOGA L. & SBIBI-ALAOUI F.-Z. & GERAADS D. 1996. The earliest occupation of Atlantic Morocco: the Casablanca evidence. In: W.Roebroeks & T.van Kolfschoten, eds: The Earliest Occupation of Europe, Univ. Leiden, 1995, p.255-262.

GERAADS D. 1996. Le Sivatherium (Giraffidae, Mammalia) du Pliocène final d'Ahl al Oughlam (Casablanca, Maroc) et l'évolution du genre en Afrique. Paläont. Zeitschr., Stuttgart, 70 (3-4): 623-629.

GERAADS D. 1997. Carnivores du Pliocène terminal de Ahl al Oughlam (Casablanca, Maroc). Géobios, Lyon, 30 (1): 127-164.

GERAADS D., AMANI F., RAYNAL J.-P. & SBIHI-ALAOUI F.Z. 1998. La faune de Mammifères du Pliocène terminal d'Ahl al Oughlam, Casablanca, Maroc. C. R. Acad. Sci., Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes, Paris, 326: 671-676.

GERAADS D. & AMANI F. 1998. Bovidae (Mammalia) du Pliocène final d'Ahl al Oughlam, Casablanca, Maroc. Paläont. Z., Stuttgart, 72(1-2): 191-205.

ALEMSEGED Z. & GERAADS D. 1998. Theropithecus atlanticus (Cercopithecidae, Mammalia) from the late Pliocene of Ahl al Oughlam, Casablanca, Morocco. J. Hum. Evol., 34: 609-621.

GERAADS D. & METZ-MULLER F. 1999. Proboscidea (Mammalia) du Pliocène final d'Ahl al Oughlam (Casablanca, Maroc). N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Mh., 1999 (1): 52-64.

BAILON S. 2000. Amphibiens et Reptiles du Pliocène terminal de Ahl al Oughlam (Casablanca, Maroc). Géodiversitas, 22 (4): 539-558.

RAYNAL J.-P., SBIHI-ALAOUI F.Z., GERAADS D., MAGOGA L. & MOHI A. 2001. The earliest occupation of North-Africa: the Moroccan perspective. Quaternary International, 75: 65-75.

GERAADS D. 2002. Plio-Pleistocene Mammalian biostratigraphy of atlantic Morocco. Quaternaire, 13 (1): 43-53.

GERAADS D., RAYNAL J.-P. & EISENMANN V. 2004. The earliest human occupation of North Africa: a reply to Sahnouni et al. (2002). Journal of Human Evolution, 46: 751-761.

GERAADS D., 2004. First record of Dinofelis (Felidae, Mammalia) from North Africa. Neues Jhb. Geol. Paläont. Monatsh., 2004 (5): 308-320.

GERAADS D. 2004. New skulls of Kolpochoerus phacochoeroides (Suidae: Mammalia) from the late Pliocene of Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco. Paleontologia Africana, 40: 69-83.

EITING, T., GUNNELL, G. GERAADS, D. 2006. New late pliocene bats (Chiroptera) from Ahl al Oughlam, Casablanca, Morocco. J Vertebrate Paleontology, suppl. to 26 (3): 58A.

GERAADS, D. 2006. The late Pliocene locality of Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco: vertebrate fauna and interpretation. Trans. R. Soc. South Africa, 61(2): 97-101.

EISENMANN, V. & GERAADS, D. 2007. The hipparion from the late Pliocene of Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco, and a revision of the relationships of Pliocene and Pleistocene African hipparions. Paleontologia Africana, 42: 51-98.

MOURER-CHAUVIRE C. & GERAADS D. 2007. The Struthionidae and Pelagornithidae (Aves: Struthioniformes, Odontopterygiformes) from the late Pliocene of Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco. Oryctos. 6ème Symposium international de la Society for Avian Paleontology and Evolution (SAPE), Esperaza, E. Buffetaut et J. Le Loeuff (eds.). Oryctos.