Saïda Hossini Explained

Saïda Hossini (born 1950) is a Moroccan palaeontologist, specialising in frogs of the Pleistocene.

Career

Hossini teaches at the University of Moulay Ismail, Faculté des Sciences in Meknes. She studied for her doctoral research in Paris, researching anuran species of the late oligocene and the miocene in France.^[1] Her work in Morocco includes the examination of cave deposits and examined amphibian remains from the Thomas Quarry Site, near Casablanca.^[2] Hossini identified for the first time the presence of the genus Baleaphryne for the first time in Africa at the Jebel Irhoud ("Ocre" quarry) site in Morocco.^[3] She also investigated the faunal remains at the cave of That El Ghar (Tetuan), exploring palaeoenvironment of North Africa between the pleistocene and the holocene.^[4]

New species

In 1993, Hossini was the person to describe a new species of frog, Latonia ragei.^[5] Evidence for the species came from the fossil record in three localities: Coderet, Laugnac and 'St Gerand-Le-Puy'.^[6] The discovery and identification of a Latonia mandible, led to the classification of this species as new to science.^[7] In other examples of ragei, Hossini worked on maxilla surface sculpturing to produce identification.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Les anoures (amphibiens) de l'oligocène terminal et du miocène en France. Paris 7. 1992-01-01. thesis. Saïda. Hossini.
2. Raynal. Jean-Paul. Sbihi-Alaoui. Fatima-Zohra. Mohib. Abderrahim. El Graoui. Mosshine. Lefèvre. David. Texier. Jean-Pierre. Geraads. Denis. Hublin. Jean-Jacques. Smith. Tanya. Tafforeau. Paul. Zouak. Mehdi. 2010. Hominid Cave at Thomas Quarry I (Casablanca, Morocco): Recent findings and their context. Quaternary International. en. 223-224. 369–382. 10.1016/j.quaint.2010.03.011. 2010QuInt.223..369R.
3. Hossini. Saïda. 2001. Les Anoures (Ambhibiens) du Pléstocéne inférieur (" Villafranchien ") du Jebel Irhoud (carriére " Ocre "), Maroc. Annales de Paléontologie. en-GB. 87. 2. 79–97. 10.1016/S0753-3969(01)80004-5.
4. Book: الحضارات الإنسانية بمغارة "كهف تحت الغار"، تطوان : المنتوجات الأثرية بمضيق جبل طارق: los productos arqueológicos en el contexto del Estrecho de Gibraltar. Ramos. José. Muñoz. José Ramos. Casasola. Darío Bernal. 2008. Servicio Publicaciones UCA. 978-84-9828-215-3. es.
5. Web site: Latonia ragei - Wikispecies. species.wikimedia.org. en. 2019-12-08.
6. Hossini. Saïda. 1993. A new species of Latonia (Anura, Discoglossidae) from the lower Miocene of France. Amphibia-Reptilia. 14. 3. 237–245. 10.1163/156853893X00435. 0173-5373.
7. Web site: Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database. fossilworks.org. 17 December 2021.
8. Georgalis. Georgios L.. Villa. Andrea. Ivanov. Martin. Vasilyan. Davit. Delfino. Massimo. 2019. Fossil amphibians and reptiles from the Neogene locality of Maramena (Greece), the most diverse European herpetofauna at the Miocene/Pliocene transition boundary. Palaeontologia Electronica. en. 22. 3. 1–99. 1094-8074.