Découverte de Jurassique supérieur et d'un niveau marin du Barrémien dans les « couches rouges » continentales du Haut Atlas central marocain : implications paléogéographiques et structurales

First record of the Upper Jurassic and of a marine Barremian intercalation in the continental 'redbeds' from the central Moroccan High Atlas: palaeogeographic and structural implications. Meaningful assemblages of charophytes and ostracods have been collected in the intermediate unit (Iouaridene Formation) of the Jurassic–Cretaceous 'redbeds' from the central Moroccan High Atlas. In the type locality of the Iouaridene syncline and also in the Ouaouizarht syncline, the lower part of the above-mentioned formation has yielded the charophytes Porochara kimmeridgensis and Dictyoclavator ramalhoi, allowing us to underline for the first time an Upper Jurassic continental sedimentation (Oxfordian?–Kimmeridgian) in the central High Atlas. Moreover, ostracods collected in the upper part of the formation quoted indicate an early marine ingression in the Lower Barremian. These biostratigraphic data allow us to precise the dating for the Dinosaurs' remains and tracks, to improve the palaeogeographical reconstructions, to recognize the stratigraphic position of two extrusive magmatic events B1 and B2 as well as to constrain the structural and evolutionary patterns of the Atlasic Belt during the Mesozoic period.