Locality · Village quarrying; buy locally or via dealers
Alnif
Tinghir Province, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco
Alnif on the road between Rissani and Zagora is the trilobite capital of Morocco: the Devonian limestones of Jbel Issoumour and the surrounding hills are dug by hand by village collectors and the finished trilobites are sold in dozens of roadside shops. Buying here is legal and cheap, but the fake and composite rate is high, so a UV torch and a loupe are essential. Preparation workshops in Erfoud and Rissani do the finer air-abrasion work.
| Country | Morocco |
|---|---|
| State / province | Drâa-Tafilalet |
| County | Tinghir Province |
| Land manager / status | Communal and private land; informal quarrying |
| Access | Roadside fossil shops on the N12; the digs themselves are reached with local guides |
| Formations | El Otfal Formation |
| What is found | Drotops, Walliserops, Dicranurus, Koneprusia, Cyphaspis, Paralejurus, Harpes |
| Coordinates (public site) | 31.11, -5.17 |
Rules
Morocco permits the sale and export of common fossils; there is no formal permit for buying trilobites, but export of large shipments goes through licensed dealers with customs paperwork, and customs may seize scientifically important material. Keep the invoice. Fakes are the main risk, not the law.
Source: https://www.aaps.net/ethics.htm (checked 2026-09-16).
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Alnif" (Locality). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/localities/alnif. Accessed 2026-09-20.
@misc{stratum-alnif,
title = {Alnif},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/localities/alnif}},
year = {2026},
note = {Locality article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.