Moroccan Dinosaur Footprints at Risk as Quarries Threaten Ancient Site

A site in danger. According to Hassan Yamani, the threat hanging over the Issil n’Aït Arbi site discovered in 2011 by a hiker is permanent. The culprit: stone quarries. The excavators’ shovels are about to make hundreds of dinosaur footprints dating back between -194 and -187 million years disappear forever. "The footprints are simply at risk of disappearing forever, as the place has become a stone quarry," warns paleontologist Masrour Moussa, a research professor at Ibn Zohr University in Agadir.

Jacques Gandini, a specialist and author of several guides devoted to North Africa and the Sahara, had issued the first alert. The second is an action by two former students from the region. "It is thanks to the vigilance and interest of the former students Driss Benyahia and Abdelkader Najim that this site could be saved. I immediately contacted the Geology Directorate at the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Environment in Rabat, which alerted the local authorities... and according to the latest information, the order has been given to prohibit any exploitation of the layers along the Oued Aït Arbi," says Professor Masrour.