ELASMOBRANCHII Bonaparte, 1838

Zouhri, Samir, Gingerich, Philip D., Khalloufi, Bouziane, Bourdon, Estelle, Adnet, Sylvain, Jouve, Stéphane, Elboudali, Najia, Amane, Ayoub, Rage, Jean-Claude & Tabuce, Rodolphe, 2021, Middle Eocene vertebrate fauna from the Aridal Formation, Sabkha of Gueran, southwestern Morocco, Geodiversitas 43 (5), pp. 121-150 : 123-125

Subclass ELASMOBRANCHII Bonaparte, 1838

REMARKS

Fossils were only collected by surface picking around the archaeocete whale carcasses (protocetids and basilosaurids, see Gingerich & Zouhri 2015), and thus the majority of small to medium-sized sharks and rays remain currently unknown.Thousands of specimens were collected from several localities around Gueran Depression (Locality I, Garouaz, Iddir and Laazri, see Gingerich & Zouhri 2015: fig.2).The majority of the fossil material consists of isolated teeth, rare barbs of myliobatid rays, and indeterminate vertebrae representing at least 12 species of sharks and rays.

The chondrichthyan fauna currently consists of 12 species of elasmobranchs belonging to orders: Lamniformes , Carcharhiniformes and Rhinopristiformes . Most unnamed species are in course of study, awaiting careful comparisons with those from subcontemporaneous deposits (e.g. MI, GE) in Waddi el-Rayyan and Wadi al Hitan (Whale Valley) in Egypt.