PI will establish the first systematic analysis of northern Gondwana (North Africa-Morocco) Devonian nautiloid cephalopods within the existing conodont and ammonoid biostratigraphic framework. These data will provide the necessary foundation 1) to establish correlation between four of the major marine groups of the Devonian (nautiloid and ammonoid cephalopods, trilobites, and conodonts), 2) to help elucidate the temporal tie to coeval fish (members of the Placodermi, Chondrichtyes and Osteichthyes) and thus provide a better understanding of pelagic marine dynamics, 3) to understand more clearly evolutionary perturbations of Devonian "events" by providing a detailed analysis of a third group of augment conodont and ammonoid data, and 4) to allow, for the first time, a definitive comparison to be made between faunas of that portion of Gondwana juxtaposed to the southern margin of Euramerica (Baltica + Laurentia) and those of western Australia and China, the only other regions of Gondwana with low latitude basins containing abundant nautiloid cephalopods. This last aspect is especially important in the continuing assessment of paleogeographic reconstructions on the basis of biostratigraphic and biogeographic data. This work will be done in conjunction with ongoing ammonoid projects of Michael House (Univ. Southhampton, UK) and Thomas Becker (Free University, Berlin) in North Africa and Australia and an existing mapping project in the Meseta, Anti-Atlas and Tindouf regions of Morocco under the direction of the Royal Maroc Division de la Geologie Generale (Ministere de L'Energie et des Mines).
