DOI: 10.5061/dryad.h70rxwds9
title: Data from: The brachiopod faunas from the Fezouata Shale (Lower Ordovician; Tremadocian–Floian) of the Zagora area, Anti-Atlas, Morocco: evidence for a biodiversity hub in Gondwana

description: Since the early 2000s, the discovery of fossils and their collection from
 the Fezouata Shale has accelerated; this has enabled us to understand the
 faunas more thoroughly. The brachiopod fauna has not been investigated for
 the past 50 years, and we present here the results of our recent studies.
 The material represents about 350 samples, in which 30 species were
 identified, assigned to 23 genera. Among these, one new genus
 (Tinzoulinorthis) and four new species (Wosekella maghribi, Rafanoglossa
 inversa, Orbithele tazagurta, Lacunites punctum) are erected; one taxon is
 recognised at family level. The fauna described from the upper Tremadocian
 horizons is more diverse than those in the Floian. The former is
 characterised by a high γ-diversity, although at the horizon level the
 α-diversity is low to medium. This fauna is typical of high-energy,
 shallow-water, unstable environmental conditions preventing long-lived
 communities to develop climax communities and indicating that the
 succession of opportunists were regularly smothered in-situ and killed by
 storm deposits. Multivariate analyses of the faunas indicate that the
 Tremadocian fauna, characterised by many endemic taxa, shows closer
 affinities with faunas from peri-Gondwanan terranes, in particular
 Bohemia. The Tremadocian Fezouata fauna is very rich in taxon first
 occurrences, which coupled with high γ-diversity, suggest it may have been
 a diversity hub. On the other hand, the Floian Fezouata fauna shows
 stronger connections with Bohemia and the Montagne Noire albeit also links
 with the South Urals and Baltica reflecting the changing Early Ordovician
 palaeogeography.
description: Data compiled from various bibliographical sources. References to
 these sources are indicated in uploaded files.
description: # Data from: The brachiopod faunas from the Fezouata Shale (Lower
 Ordovician; Tremadocian–Floian) of the Zagora area, Anti-Atlas, Morocco:
 evidence for a biodiversity hub in Gondwana
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h70rxwds9](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h70rxwds9) ## Description of the data and file structure We have submitted the following files with the data: raw data (**1_Tremadocian database.xls**), (**2_Floian database.xls**) and associated bibliographical references (**references Tremadocian database DRYAD.doc**), (**references Floian database DRYAD.doc**) **Description of the data and file structure** The Excel spreadsheets consist of the list of genera used in the analyses (first column) and the list of localities used (first row). The data is recorded as presence(1) / absence (0). The last row is referenced to as **references** and list the bibliographical references used to extract the data for each locality. This is coded with a number in brackets referring to the full bibliographical reference on the associated Word document (for e.g., references in the Tremadocian database will be shown on the Word document relating to the Tremadocian. **Code / Software** We used the PAST Software (v.4.04), but an updated version can be found here: [https://www.nhm.uio.no/english/research/resources/past/](https://www.nhm.uio.no/english/research/resources/past/) We also used Gephi Software available here; [https://gephi.org/](https://gephi.org/) Both software are free to download and use.