An introduction to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event: Insights from the Tafilalt Biota, Morocco

International audience; The exquisitely preserved, diverse and abundant fossil assemblages yielded by the 'echinoderm meadows' of the Tafilalt region of the eastern Anti-Atlas represent a new Konservat-Lagerstätte, one of the few exceptionally preserved Late Ordovician open marine faunas found globally, giving us an insight into the radiation of life during the later phases of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) in high-latitude peri-Gondwana. The GOBE saw most phyla increase exponentially in diversity, at the fastest rate of the entire Phanerozoic and represents one of the most significant events in the evolution of the marine biosphere, preceding the end-Ordovician mass extinction. This volume is the culmination of over 20 years of research by several international teams that integrates sedimentology, palaeobiology and palaeobiogeographic approaches. Nine different phyla and several softbodied problematica are represented in the Tafilalt, including several notable echinoderm