Merci bien, article tout à fait intéressant. certains clichés sont très spectaculaires.
J'ai trouvé également du même auteur une publication sur une faune de Cétacés bartoniens du Maroc.
a b s t r a c t
Six genera and species of archaic whales are present in a new fauna from the Aridal Formation at Gueran
in the Sahara Desert of southwestern Morocco. Three of the archaeocete species represent semiaquatic
Protocetidae and three species are fully aquatic Basilosauridae. Protocetids are characteristic of Lutetian
lower middle Eocene strata, and basilosaurids are characteristic of Priabonian late Eocene beds. Similar
representation of both families is restricted to intervening Bartonian strata and indicative of a late middle
Eocene age. Archaeocetes from Gueran include (1) a small protocetid represented by a partial humerus,
teeth, and vertebrae; (2) a middle-sized protocetid represented by a partial innominate and proximal
femur; (3) the very large protocetid Pappocetus lugardi represented by teeth, a partial innominate, and
two partial femora; (4) a new species of the small basilosaurid Chrysocetus represented by a dentary,
teeth, humeri, and many vertebrae; (5) a new species of the larger basilosaurid Platyosphys (resurrected
as a distinct genus) represented by a partial braincase, tympanic bulla, and many vertebrae; and (6) the
large basilosaurid Eocetus schweinfurthi represented by teeth, a tympanic bulla, and lumbar vertebrae.
The Gueran locality is important geologically because it constrains the age of a part of the Aridal Formation,
and biologically because it includes a diversity of archaic whales represented by partial skeletons
with vertebrae in sequence and by forelimb and hind limb remains. With further collecting, Gueran
archaeocete skeletons promise to clarify the important evolutionary transition from foot-powered
swimming in Protocetidae to the tail-powered swimming of Basilosauridae and all later Cetacea.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464343X1530039X