In situ U-Pb dating of zircons from five samples of Calabrian augen gneisses shows that their protoliths are Latest Precambrian to Early Cambrian in age (562 ± 15, 547 ± 7, 540 ± 4, 539 ± 16 and 526 ± 10 Ma), and contain Archaean (3.1 Ga), Palaeoproterozoic (1.7-2.4 Ga) and Neoproterozoic (0.6-0.9 Ga) inheritance. Geochemical signature of augen gneisses is typical of high-K calc-alkaline post-collisional magmatism. Their Sr-Nd isotopic compositions [0.7093 < ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) i < 0.7139; -3.2 < e Nd(t) < -5.4; 1.5 < T DM < 1.7 Ga] indicate the involvement of a crustal component in significant proportions. The Calabrian augen gneisses have, therefore, to be distinguished from the orthogneisses of Sardinia and northern Algeria, and from the porphyroids of Sicily, which are Middle Ordovician. By contrast, the Calabrian augen gneisses show a close similarity to the Pan-African post-collisional granitoids of the northern edge of the West African craton (e.g. the Moroccan Anti-Atlas). This suggests a periGondwana origin and corroborates previous palaeogeodynamic reconstructions attributing the Alboran microplate to the northern margin of the West African craton.