Spicomellus afer: A surprisingly well-armoured Ankylosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco.

The Ankylosaurs were a group of heavily-armoured, short-limbed, wide-bodied, Ornithischian Dinosaurs, best known from Late Cretaceous deposits in Eurasia and North America. Although the group is known to have existed by the Middle Jurassic, remains from this period are limited to a jawbone and a few teeth from two sites in England, and it has been speculated that earlier members of the group may have lacked the heavy armour of the Late Cretaceous species. This is not unreasonable, the Late Cretaceous saw the emergence of a range of new predators, including novel groups of Theropod Dinosaurs and Crocodilians, and the first large predatory Mammals and Snakes, leading to the evolution of novel defence strategies in many herbivorous groups. 

Although well known from the Laurasian Continents, Ankylosaurs were for a long time thought to be absent from Gondwana. However, in 1986 this was changed by the discovery of Antarctopelta oliveroi, from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica, the first known Dinosaur from that continent. This was followed in 1989 by the discovery of Kunbarrasaurus ieversi, a small Ankylosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Australia. The subsequent discovery of Stegouros elengassen from the Late Cretaceous of southern Chile and Patagopelta cristata from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina confirmed that Ankylosaurs were present, if uncommon, across Gondwana in the Cretaceous, and it was speculated that these Dinosaurs were members of a single clade, the Parankylosauria, which had split from its Laurasian cousins early in the history of the group, and developed a range of distinctive traits, including a distinctive tail weapon formed from five pairs of robust osteoderms, fused together to form a flat, fan-like weapon called a 'macuahuitl', in reference to a traditional weapon from Mesoamerica, made from a series of obsidian blades mounted on a wooden club, giving a sword-like appearance. 

Spicomellus afer was first described in 2021 from a single rib-fragment with fused spikes from Morocco. The fossil appeared to have clear Ankylosaurian affinities, and, importantly, came from the Middle Jurassic, apparently confirming the hypothesis of an early-branching clade of Ankylosaurs reaching Gondwana and diversifying there.

In a paper published in the journal Nature on 27 August 2025, Susannah Maidment of the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians and Birds Section a the Natural History Museum, and the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, Driss Ouarhache, Kawtar Ech-charay, Ahmed Oussou, Khadija Boumir, and Abdessalam El Khanchou of the GERA Laboratory at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Alison Park of Emanya Fossil Preparation and Conservation, Luke Meade, also of the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, Cary Woodruff of the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, and the Museum of the Rockies, Simon Wills and Mike Smith, also of the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians and Birds Section a the Natural History Museum, Paul Barrett, again of the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians and Birds Section a the Natural History Museum, and of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Richard Butler, once again of the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, describe a new partial skeleton of Spicomellus afer, enabling a more complete reconstruction of the species and a re-interpretation of the history of the Ankylosauria. 

The new material comprises a left quadrate, two cervical, two dorsal, four sacral and four free caudal vertebrae, two handle vertebrae, six dorsal ribs with spikes fused to their dorsal surfaces, both scapulocoracoids, ilia and pubes, the right ischium, two metatarsals, an elaborate cervical half ring bearing extremely long spikes, a sacral shield bearing small and large spikes, numerous plates, large and small spikes of various morphologies, and several compound osteoderms comprising combinations of small and large spikes. These suggest an unusually well-armoured Animal, even compared to other Ankylosaurs, casting doubt upon the prevailing idea that heavy armour developed in the group in the Late Cretaceous as a result of increased predation pressures. 

A life reconstruction of Spicomellus afer. (a), (b) A life reconstruction of Spicomellus afer  showing hypothetical positions of armour in dorsal (a) and right lateral (b)  views. (c) USMBA 19: a blade-like spine that is 43 cm long. (d) USMBA 70:  a compound osteoderm with large, oval base. The long spike is 35 cm long. (e) USMBA 12: part of the left ilium bearing a fused sacral shield, which includes  a large iliac spike lying dorsal to the acetabulum. The height of the spike, as  preserved, is 24 cm. (f) USMBA 14: cervical half-ring. The length of the longest spike is 87 cm. (g) USMBA 30: a slender, rounded spike that is 10 cm long. (h) USMBA 12: a portion of the left ilium bearing a fused sacral shield ornamented by small, rounded spikes. (i) USMBA 37: a slender, rounded spike that is 30 cm long. (j) USMBA 12: a large spike with a robust, expanded base plate. The spike is 23 cm long. The specimen was found in association with the iliac spike (e). (k) USMBA 26: a plate, probably from the pectoral region based on comparisons  with other Ankylosaurs. The plate is 24 cm in length. (l) USMBA 25: a compound osteoderm with spikes, one of which is broken. The better-preserved spike appears to have been the more slender of the two and is 34.5 cm long. (m) USMBA 17: a blade-like spine with an expanded base that is 27 cm long. (n) USMBA 63: a three-spiked osteoderm with a broken basal plate. The height of the middle spike is 3.5 cm. Matt Dempsey in Maidment et al. (2025).

The deposits from which the skeleton was recovered come from the Bathonian stage, making them between 168.2 and 165.3 million years old, making Spicomellus afer equal in age to the oldest known Ankylosaur fossils, a scattering of isolated from the Bathonian White Limestone of England, and close to the predicted split between the Ankylosauria and the Stegosauria. 

A phylogenetic analysis carried out by Maidment et al. was unable to recover the Parankylosauria as a distinct clade of Gondwanan Ankylosaurs. The Chilean Stegouros elengassen was found to be the sister species to all other Anylosaurs, apparently representing an early-diverging, and otherwise lost, lineage, while other members of the proposed Parankylosauria were scattered throughout the Ankylosauria as a whole, with their formerly apparent similarities being a result of convergent evolution.

A simplified time-calibrated strict reduced consensus tree showing  the putative phylogenetic position of Spicomellus afer. Note that the timescale for the  Middle Jurassic has been expanded so that branching patterns can be clearly  seen. Taxa in grey are from the Northern Hemisphere; those in black are from the  Southern Hemisphere. Green text denotes clades. Abbreviations: Aal, Aalenian; Alb, Albian; Apt, Aptian;  Baj, Bajocian; Barr, Barremian; Bath, Bathonian; Berr, Berriasian; Call, Callovian;  Cam, Campanian; Cen, Cenomanian; Con, Coniacian; Haut, Hauterivian;  Hett, Hettangian; Kimm, Kimmeridgian; Maas, Maastrichtian; Oxf, Oxfordian;  Plien, Pliensbachian; Sant, Santonian; Sine, Sinemurian; Tith, Tithonian;  Toar, Toarcian; Tur, Turonian; Vala, Valanginian. Maidment et al. (2025).

Based upon this, Maidment et al. conclude that heavy and extensive armour first appeared in Ankylosaurs in the Middle Jurassic, and was apparently a defining feature of the group from the outset. The further speculate that this may have been a result of sexual selection rather than predation pressure, something which could drive the rapid development of an anatomy distinct from that of their closest relatives. Under this scenario, the widespread appearance of heavily armoured Ankylosaurs in the Late Cretaceous might represent not the adaptation of a less well armoured group to a high predation environment, but rather the advantageous pre-adaptation of the group to such an environment, enabling the Ankylosaurs to flourish at the expense of less well-armoured rival groups.

Armour of Spicomellus afer. Richard Butler, Kawtar Ech-charay, Ahmed Oussou and Alison Park for scale (and the scale bar on the table is 8 cm long). Maidment et al. (2025).

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Numenius tenuirostris: The Slender-billed Curlew declared extinct.

The Earth's biodiversity is considered to be facing a crisis at a global level, with many experts believing that species may be going extinct at a rate as high as during the great extinctions recorded in the fossil record. Despite this, it is very hard to determine how many species are going extinct, in part because many species have never been documented, but also because it is generally impossible to tell whether a species is extinct, unless it can be confidently asserted that all populations were being monitored prior to extinction. The best recorded organisms tend to be Vertebrates, and one of the most extensively monitored Vertebrate groups are the Birds, a group which tend to be highly visible, and which are often recorded extensively by non-professional citizen-science groups. Despite this attention, many species of Birds have not been seen for a long time, and this cannot always be taken as evidence that they have become extinct: for instance, the Black-browed Babbler, Malacocincla perspicillata, was rediscovered in 2020 after not being observed in 180 years. The apparent extinction of species can be problematic, causing conservationists to cease efforts to protect a species which is close to extinction; conversely failure to realise that a species has become extinct can lead to efforts being dedicated to preserving it which could otherwise have been directed towards other species which might still be saved.

In a paper published in the journal Ibis on 17 November 2024, Greame  Buchanan of the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Ben Chapple of the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research at University College London, Alex Berryman of BirdLife International, Nicola Crockford of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Justin Jansen of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and Alexander Bond of the Bird Group at the Natural History Museum, formally declare the Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, to be extinct.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species currently lists the Slender-billed Curlew as Critically Endangered, on the assumption that the total population is less than 50 Birds and declining. The species is believed to be restricted to the Palaearctic biogeographical region, breeding in central Asia and migrating to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula. Slender-billed Curlews are thought to breed to the east of the Ural Mountains, in the area around Omsk in southern Russia. Isotope studies of museum specimens suggest that the species may also have bred further south, in northern Kazakhstan, while some eggs assigned to the species, also in museum collections, indicate that the species may also have bred to the west of the Urals. Outside of the breeding season the Birds ranged west as far as Western Europe and the Atlantic coast of North Africa, being known from across the Mediterranean Region, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Pannonian Plains of southeast Central Europe.

Once widespread in Europe, Slender-billed Curlews were last observed in Brittany, France, in February 1968, and in North Yemen in January 1984. A colony, thought to be the last, was known on the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the 1990s, with the last reported sighting in the winter of 1997/8, although a flock of Slender-billed Curlews was photographed in southern Italy in  March 1995. No subsequent observations of the species have been made, despite extensive searches across its former range, including the Middle East and Central Asia.

The last known photograph of a group of Slender-billed Curlews, taken in southern Italy in March 1995. Marco Basso in van den Berg (1995).

The Slender-billed Curlew was first observed breeding in 1912 by Russian ornithologist Valentin Ushakov, who first noted that the species appeared to be in decline. The possibility that Slender-billed Curlews might be at risk of extinction was first raised in 1943 by German ornithologists Erwin Stresemann and Hermann Grote, but it was not until 1988 that the species was identified as Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The species was listed as Critically Endangered in 1994, following a re-assessment of its status, and an action plan for its recovery was produced in 1996. 

Based upon this long absence from its known range, and the extensive, yet unproductive, searched which have been made in the last three decades, combined with the declining number of sightings recorded throughout the twentieth century, Buchanan et al. carried out a statistical analysis of the probability that the species might still exist. Based upon this, they conclude that is most likely that the species became extinct in the 1990s, with only a miniscule possibility that the species might still exist in the 2020s.

If this analysis is correct, then the Slender-billed Curlew is only the third species of Bird known to spend a large part of its annual cycle in the Western Palaearctic to have become extinct since 1500, joining the Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, last reported in 1844, and the Canarian Oystercatcher, Haematopus meadewaldoi, last observed in 1913. 

A preserved museum specimen of a juvenile male Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris. Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Wikimedia Commons.

It is difficult to directly assess the cause of the extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew, since it is likely that the species finally died out around the time that an action plan for its survival was first drawn up. When that plan was produced, it identified that the species was threatened by habitat loss across its range, and potentially being hunted in some areas as well. 

The only records of breeding by the Slender-billed Curlew are those made by Valentin Ushakov in southern Russia in the early twentieth century. It is possibly that the main breeding area for the species was further south, on the steppes of northern Kazakhstan, which were extensively converted to croplands by the Russian Empire and Soviet Union in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in the process destroying extensive wetlands, which might have served as breeding grounds for Slender-billed Curlews, however, without further evidence, this is purely speculative. 

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Setapedites abundantis: A stem-group Euchelicerate from the Ordovician Fezouata Shale of Morocco.

The Euchelicerates are a large group of Arthropods, comprising the living Arachnids and Xiphosurans (Horseshoe Crabs), as well as extinct groups such as the Eurypterids (Sea Scorpions), Chasmataspidids and the Synziphosurines. The closest living relatives of the Euchelicerates are the Pycnogonids (Sea Spiders), with the two groups together forming the Chelicerata. However, the closest outgroup to the Euchelicerata among the Arthropod groups of the Lower Palaeozoic is less certain, with groups such as the Megacheira, Artiopoda, Vicissicaudata, and Habeliida all suggested. Understanding the relationship between Euchelicerates and other Arthropods is dependent on understanding the order in which the group acquired its key features, i.e. the chelicerae (frontal appendages) from which the group gets its name, and the organisation of the body segments into two divisions, the prosoma, which hosts both the sensory organs and the walking limbs, and the opisthosoma, which hosts the book gills. The Synziphosurines, a (possibly paraphyletic or polyphyletic) stem group of Euchelicerates known from Silurian to Carboniferous deposits, are thought to offer a potential key to this, although very few complete specimens are known. Two noteworthy Synziphosurines (and the two earliest known species to date) are Offacolus kingi and Dibasterium durgae, both from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte of England, both of which have biramous (branching) limbs (a trait unknown in more derived Euchelicerates), and which have been consistently recovered as the two basalmost Euchelicerates in phylogenetic analyses.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications on 7 May 2024, Lorenzo Lustri of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Lausanne, Pierre Gueriau, also of the  Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Lausanne, and of the Université Paris-Saclay, and Allison Daley, again of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Lausanne, describe a new species of Synziphosurine Euchelicerate from the Early Ordovician Fezouata Shale of Morocco, and discuss the implications of this species for the origin of the Euchelicerate clade.

The Fezouata Shale is noteworthy for the production of a large number of exceptionally preserved Arthropods, as well as Molluscs and Echinoderms dating to about 478 million years ago, during the early stages of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, providing key insights into this interval in the history of life.

The new species is named Setapedites abundantis, where 'Setapedites' means 'hair-foot', in reference to the presence of a brush-like arrangement of hairs on its prosomal exopods (feet), and 'abundantis' refers to the super-abundant nature of the species, which is one of the most numerous fossils in the Fezouata Shale. The species is described from two large collections of specimens, each comprising hundreds of individuals, belonging to the Musée cantonal de géologie Lausanne, and the Yale Peabody Museum.

Dorsal anatomy of Setapedites abundantis. (A), (B) MGL.102899 and interpretative drawing, articulated specimen in dorsal view. (C(, (D) MGL.102828 and interpretative drawing, articulated specimen in dorsal view. (E), (F) MGL. 102872 and interpretative drawing, articulated specimen in dorsal view. Abbreviations: btg, bipartite tergites; mr, median ridge; pl, pleura; pr, prosomal rim; saxn, sub-axial node; sr, sunken region; t1–11, tergites 1–11; t, telson; tk, telson keel. Scale bars, (A)–(F) 1 mm. Lustri et al. (2024).

Setapedites abundantis possesses an elongate, dorsoventrally flattened body, divided into an anterior prosoma bearing a fused dorsal headshield, and an unfused opisthosoma clearly differentiated into (medially) a pre-abdomen and (posteriorly) an abdomen. Its total length varies between 4.33 and 6.5mm (excluding appendages and telson), its maximum width (prosoma) between 2.23 and 2.9mm.

Prosomal appendicular anatomy of Setapedites abundantis. (A), (B) YPMIP 517932c and interpretative drawing (counterpart), articulated specimen in ventral view. (C), (D) YPM IP 517932c and interpretative drawing, chelicerae, and labrum anatomy detail. (E), (F) Close-up of the prosoma ofMGL.102934 and interpretative drawing, in dorso-lateral view. (G), (H) Close-up of the prosoma of MGL.102634 and interpretative drawing, in ventral view. (I), (J) Close-up of the prosoma of MGL.102800a under alcohol and polarized lighting, and interpretative drawing, in ventral view. Abbreviations: 1–6, podomeres 1–6 of the exopod; ptp, pretelsonic process; bs, basipodite; bst, brush-like setae; che, chelate podomere; db, doublure; lb, labrum; ss, single setae; st, pair of setae. Chelicerae are highlighted in gray, endopods in blue, exopods in green, opisthosomal appendages in red, and the pretelsonic process in purple. Scale bars, (A), (B) 1mm; (C), (D) 100μm; (E)–(K) 500 μm. Lustri et al.  (2024).

A phylogenetic analysis including Setapedites abundantis found that it grouped with Offacolus kingi and Dibasterium durgae, together the family Offacolidae, togther forming the sister group to the Crown Euchelicerates, with the Habeliida forming the closest outgroup.

Phylogenetic position of Setapedites abundantis among Panchelicerates, showing early euchelicerate body plan evolution. Simplified extended majority rule tree of a Bayesian analysis chronogram of Euchelicerate relationships, based on amatrix of 39 taxa and 114 discrete characters, showing the position of Setapedites abundantis within Offacolidae. Lineages extending after the Silurian are indicatedwith arrowheads. Schematic models of the body organization in Habelia, Setapedites abundantis, Dibasterium, Offacolus, and Xiphosurida illustrate the origin and early evolution of Euchelicerate uniramous prosomal appendages and tagmosis. Roman numbers designate somites. Prosoma somites are highlighted in blue, pre-abdomen somites in yellow, abdomen somites in brown, and the possible anal pouch or post-ventral structure (pvs) in purple. Black dorsal lines indicate tergites and cephalotorax. Lustri et al. (2024).

The Pycnogonids (Sea Spiders) have long been seen as the sister group to the Euchelicerates, with the two groups together forming the clade Chelicerata. While they are clearly the closest living Animals to the Chelicerates genetically, the assumption that they are closer than many fossil groups has relied upon morphological similarities, notably the presence of a pair of limbs on the head called the chelifores, which have been assumed to be homologous with the chelicerae of the Euchelicerata, a head tagama made up of four segments, and uniramous limbs.  However, the presence of biramous limbs in both the Offacolidae, recovered as the basalmost stem group of the Euchelicerates and Habeliida, recovered as the closest outgroup, casts doubts upon this analysis. Modern Pycnogonids have a very specialised bodyplan, and the group has a very limited fossil record, making it hard to assess how Sea Spiders are related to Palaeozoic Arthropod groups.

Life reconstruction of Setapedites abundantis. Elissa Sorojsrisom in Lustri et al. (2024).

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Alienacanthus malkowskii: A highly specialised Placoderm Fish from the Late Devonian Rheic Ocean.

Placoderms are thought to have been the earliest jawed Vertebrates, first appearing in the Silurian and rising to become the most diverse group of Fish in the Devonian, before their extinction at the end of that period. During the Devonian the Placoderms, and in particular the Arthrodires (the most abundant and diverse Placoderm group) produced a wide range of forms, implying an equally diverse range of ecological and feeding strategies. However, Placoderms are known almost entirely from their hard parts, with only a single specimen with a body outline known, and no known stomach contents or soft parts, limiting our ability to interpret the ecology of these diverse early Fish. The jaws of early Placoderms show tend to be similar, apparently adapted to rapid snatching of prey, but later members of the group are much more varied, and have been interpreted to reflect a range of feeding styles from filter feeding to durophagy (the crushing of hard foodstuffs, such as shellfish).

In a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on 31 January 2024, Melina Jobbins of the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Zurich, Martin Rücklin of the Naturalis Biodiversity Cente and the University of Leiden, Marcelo Sánchez Villagra, also of the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Zurich, Hervé Lelièvre of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Eileen Grogan of the Department of Biology at Saint Joseph’s University, Piotr Szrek of the Polish Geological Institute, and Christian Klug, again of the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Zurich, redescribe a species of Late Devonian Placoderm previously only known from fragmentary material from the Holy Cross Mountains of Poland, on the basis of new material from the eastern Anti-Atlas of Morocco.

Alienacanthus malkowskii was originally described from fragmentary material from two quarries in Poland, as composing large, possibly paired, spines of uncertain origin. Jobbins et al.'s redescription of the species is based upon a nearly complete skull, the left side of a second skull, and a number of more fragmentary remains from sites in Morocco, which reveals the 'spines' to be part of the lower jaw of a large Eubrachythoracid Placoderm.

Alienacanthus malkowskii, skull, PIMUZ A/I 5239. In right (a), (b), left (c), (d) and dorsal (e), (f) view; inferognathals, PIMUZ A/I5238, in lingual (g), lateral (h) and dorsal (i) view. Each bone is differentiated by a separate colour. Black arrow points to lingualdepression. Scale bars correspond to 100 mm. Jobbins et al. (2024).

The inferognathal bones, which form the lower jaws in Placoderms protrude significantly beyond the upper jaw, reaching about twice the length of the rest of the skull, reaching a pointed tip. These jaw elements run closely parallel to one-another over about 60% of their length, although they are not fused at any point. The teeth of both jaws are posteriorly recurved, with the 'teeth' (actually bony protrusions, as in all Placoderms) of the lower jaw continuing forward of the upper jaw, but a significant distance short of the tip of the bone.

Extremely elongated lower jaws are known in a variety of other extant and fossil Fish and marine Tetrapods, including the Carboniferous Chondrichthyan Ornithoprion, the extant ray-finned Halfbeaks, which have a fossil record dating back to the Palaeogene, and the Pliocene Porpoise Semirostrum. Although in none of these are the lower jaws as elongated as they are in Alienacanthus malkowskii, with the longest examples being found in some species of Halfbeak, which can reach about 1.6 times the length of the skull.

Live reconstructions of Alienacanthus. Based on the body morphology of extinct and modern Fish with elongated jaws (elongated, fusiform, bodies). Beat Scheffold & Christian Klug in Jobbins et al. (2024).

The recurved teeth of Alienacanthus malkowskii are strongly suggestinve of a diet of live Fish, mirroring the shape of teeth seen in many other Fish-eating groups, including Ichthyosaurs, Snakes, Choristoderans, and other living and extinct Fish species. However, the lower teeth of Alienacanthus malkowskii continue beyond the upper jaw, with up to twelve teeth forward of the mouth in observed specimens. 

Teeth forward of the mouth are known in a number of Condrichthyan groups, including Sawfish, Sawsharks, and Rajiform Rays. All of these have teeth on the upper jaw rather than the lower, and are equipped with electroreceptive sensory organs which enable them to detect prey-Fish and strike them with a rapid side-motion of the rostrum. However, thin sections of the jaw of Alienacanthus malkowskii show no signs of the additional neural canals which would be associated with such a system, and the teeth of Alienacanthus malkowskii are directed upwards, rather than sideways, making it unlikely that the elongated jaw was used in the same way as seen in Sawfish. Instead, Jobbins et al. suggest that the presence of teeth forward of the mouth in Alienacanthus malkowskii is a product of the way the living Animal grew, with formerly useable oral teeth being carried forward as the jawbone elongated, probably in a short burst of growth as the Fish approached maturity, although it is still possible that the long lower jaw was used to strike at prey, and that the forward teeth could have inflicted damage on soft-bodied Animals.

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Morocco hit by Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake, resulting in at least 632 deaths.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake at a depth of about 18.5 km, roughly 56 km to the west of the ski resort of Oukaïmedene in Al Haouz Province, southern Morocco, slightly after 11.10 pm local time (slightly after 10.10 pm GMT) on Friday September 2023. The Earthquake has been described as the worst to hit Morocco in a hundred years, and is known to have resulted in at least 632 deaths, mostly in remote communities within the Atlas Mountains, where it is possible many more deaths are yet to be reported. A large number of buildings are known to have collapsed as a result the Earthquake, including some in the historic Old City area of Marrakesh. The event was felt across most of Morocco, as well as western Algeria, southern Iberia and the Canary Islands.

A collapsed building in Marrakesh. Getty Images.

Morocco lies on the northernmost part of the African Plate, while Spain to the north is part of Eurasia. Africa is pushing into Europe from the south, which causes Earthquakes around the Mediterranean Basin. These are most common in southeast Europe, but those in northwest Africa, while less frequent, are often larger and more deadly.

The approximate location of the 8 September 2023 Morocco Earthquake. USGS.

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Striped Hyenas spotted in the Dghoumes National Park, Tunisia, and the Moroccan High Atlas for the first time in decades.

Striped Hyenas, Hyaena hyaena, are medium-sized Carnivoran Mammals with a wide distribution from North and West Africa, through East Africa and the Middle East to the Caucasus region and South and Central Asia. They mate for life, with both members of a pair partaking equally in the raising of the young. Spotted Hyenas are primarily carrion feeders, although they will hunt small prey, and can be found in wide range of habitats. They are, however, seldom tolerated around farmland, because of their perceived threat to livestock, and have become locally extinct across parts of their range, while suffering major declines in population in others. As such they are currently classified as Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

A Striped Hyena, Hyaena hyaena, in the Jebel Akhdar uplands of northeastern Libya. Rushikesh Deshmukh/Wikimedia Commons.

The expansion of agriculture in Tunisia, and in particular the farming of livestock, has fuelled conflicts between Humans and carnivores, with only the African Wolf, Canis lupaster, and the Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, remaining in many areas. The Striped Hyena is thought to have disappeared from most of Tunisia in the twentieth century, with the only twenty-first century records coming from camera traps in the Jebel Serj National Park in the north of the country.

In a letter to the journal Orynx published on 30 August 2022, Mohamed Khalil Meliane and Amira Saidi of Marwell Wildlife and the Research Laboratory of Biodiversity, Management and Conservation of Biological Systems at the University of Tunis El Manar, Marie Petretto and Tim Woodfine, also of Marwell Wildlife, and Philip Riordan and Tania Gilbert, again of Marwell Wildlife and of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton, report camera trap observations of the Spotted Hyena in the Dghoumes National Park in southern Tunisia.

The observations were made as part of an assessment of biodiversity in the park following the re-introduction of the Scimitar-horned Oryx, Oryx dammah, Dorcas Gazelle, Gazella dorcas and North African Ostrich, Struthio camelus camelus. A total of 30 camera traps were deployed along Animal trails between April 2018 and March 2022. Striped Hyenas were spotted only during one month each during 2018 and 2019, but were spotted during six months each in 2020 and 2021. During this time 20 observations were made of at least two individual Hyenas. Camera traps placed in the Jbil National Park and Sidi Toui National Park in southern Tunisia failed to record any Spotted Hyenas.

In a second letter published in Orynx on the same day, Abderrazak Ek Alami and El Mustapha Bouzid of the Moroccan Ministry of National Education, and Abderrazak Fattah of the University of Hassan II in Casablanca, confirm the first observation of a Striped Hyena in the Central High Atlas Mountains of Morocco since 2000.

El Alami et al. were engaged in surveying the area for Carnivores between 2019 and 2022, although they did not observe any Striped Hyenas during this survey. However, on 20 April 2022 a Hyena was shot and killed by a local resident in the Faryata region north-east of the town of Beni Mellal, with photographs of the dead Animal being subsequently posted to social media, prompting local authorities to investigate, as the species is protected under Moroccan law.

This (unfortunate) incident confirms that Striped Hyenas are still present in the High Atlas, although the fact that the species was not detected by a survey which was able to located other elusive species suggests that their numbers are very low, leading El Alami et al. to conclude that more efforts are needed both to protect Carnivores in this region, and to promote education about conservation in order to reduce Human-wildlife conflicts.

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