Ahmed N. El-Barkooky

Systematics of early and middle Miocene Old World monkeys

New information about the early cercopithecoids Prohylobates tandyi (Wadi Moghra, Egypt) and Prohylobates sp. indet. (Buluk and Nabwal, Kenya) is presented. Comparisons are made among all major collections of Early and Middle Miocene catarrhine monkeys, and a systematic revision of the early Old World monkeys is provided. Previous work involving the systematics of early Old World monkeys (Victoriapithecidae; Cercopithecoidea) has been hampered by a number of factors, including the poor preservation of Prohylobates material from North Africa and lack of comparable anatomical parts across collections. However, it is now shown that basal cercopithecoid species from both northern and eastern Africa can be distinguished from one another on the basis of degree of lower molar bilophodonty, relative lower molar size, occlusal details, symphyseal construction, and mandibular shape. Results of particular interest include: 1) the first identification of features that unambiguously define Prohylobates relative to Victoriapithecus; 2) confirmation that P. tandyi is incompletely bilophodont; and 3) recognition of additional victoriapithecid species.

CREODONTA AND CARNIVORA FROM WADI MOGHRA, EGYPT

Abstract Six new occurrences of carnivorous mammals from Wadi Moghra, early Miocene, Egypt, are described, and the implications of these taxa for interpreting the biogeography of early Miocene mammals are discussed. The new taxa include two hyaenodontid creodonts (Buhakia moghraensis, gen. et sp. nov., and cf. Teratodon) and four carnivorans: an amphicyonid (Cynelos, sp. nov.), two viverrids s. l. (Herpestides aegypticus, sp. nov., and Ketketictis solida, gen. et sp. nov.), and a stenoplesictid (Moghradictis nedjema, gen. et sp. nov.). Previously only two carnivorous mammals, both large creodonts (Hyainailouros fourtaui, Megistotherium osteothlastes), had been reported from Moghra. Together, the eight carnivorous taxa now known from Moghra include not only some representatives of widespread genera common to localities across Eurasia and Africa, but also a number of unique faunal elements, including three new genera and five new species. Evidence for two alternate hypotheses concerning the timing of carnivore migrations events are discussed: 1) an early Miocene (ca. MN 3) event followed by a slightly later (MN 4-5) one; or 2) an even earlier first migration in the late Oligocene-early Miocene (MN 1 or even MP 30), considered here to be the more likely scenario.

Suidae and Sanitheriidae from Wadi Moghra, Early Miocene, Egypt

New suid and sanithere material from Wadi Moghra, early Miocene, Egypt, is described and discussed. The new material greatly improves the sample size and diversity of suoids known from North Africa, and includes one species of Sanitheriidae and three species of Kubanochoerinae. The Moghra suoid assemblage most closely resembles that from Gebel Zelten, Libya, suggesting that at least part of the Moghra deposits may overlap in time with part of Zelten, i.e., is equivalent in age to MN 4–5 of the European mammal zonation, or PIII of the East African one. Information from suids and sanitheres is consistent with previous interpretations, that the Moghra deposits were formed under swampy and littoral paleoenvironmental conditions.

Bio-seismic and sequence stratigraphy of the Neogene of the Northwest Damietta Concession, Nile Delta, Egypt

The stratigraphic framework of the Neogene sequence drilled by two offshore wells located in the north-eastern shore of the Nile Delta (the wells Sekhmet-1 and Sekhmet-2) has been established. The lithostratigraphic units with their sequences, from older to younger, are as follows: the Sidi Salim Formation (including Sr1 SB, Sr2 SB, Sr2 MFS, Sr3 SB and Sr3 MFS), a sequence representing the uppermost part of the Sidi Salim and most of the lower part of the Qawasim Formations (including Tor 1.1 SB, Tor 1.2 SB, Tor 1.3 SB, Tor 1.4 SB and ?Tor 2 SB), a sequence representing the uppermost part of Qawasim and the lower part of the Abu Madi Formations (including ?Me1 SB, Me2 SB and Me2 MFS), the Kafr El Sheikh Formation (including alternatively Za 1 and 2 SB and MFS and Ge 1 SB and MFS), the El Wastani Formation (including Ge 2 SB and MFS) and a Quaternary sequence represented by the topmost part of El Wastani and Mit Ghamr/Bilqas Formation (including alternatively ?Cala 1 and 2 SB and MFS and ?Io 2 SB). The lower part of the Qawasim in well Sekhmet-2 includes two LST: Tor 2 LST and Me 1 LST.

Small vertebrates from Khasm El-Raqaba, late Middle Miocene, Eastern Desert, Egypt

Khasm El-Raqaba (KER) (28.451°N, 31.834°E) is a large commercial limestone quarry in Egypts Eastern Desert. The site is best known for cetacean fossils recovered from middle Eocene deposits, but remains of some geologically younger, small fossil vertebrates representing snakes, rodents and bats, have been recovered from karst fissure-fill deposits intrusive into the Eocene limestones. Comparisons with extant and extinct material reveal that the KER snakes represent two different colubrines, the rodents are referable to the ctenodactylid Africanomys, and the bats represent a new species of Hipposideros (Pseudorhinolophus). Together, faunal correlation and geological evidence are in broad agreement with a late Middle Miocene age for this KER fauna, and a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of mixed subtropical and more arid microhabitats.

ANTHRACOTHERES FROM WADI MOGHRA, EARLY MIOCENE, EGYPT

Abstract The early Miocene site of Wadi Moghra, Qattara Depression, Egypt, is important for interpreting anthracothere (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) evolution, because the Moghra sediments preserve a higher diversity of anthracotheres than any other pene-contemporaneous site. New specimens from Moghra are described and form the basis for the systematic revision of Moghra anthracotheres provided here. Among the important discoveries recently made at Moghra is the first complete skull of Sivameryx moneyi. Other new specimens described here include two new species of Afromeryx, and a new genus and species, all of which are unique to Moghra. A review of biogeographic information supports the conclusion that three of the Moghra anthracotheres (Brachyodus depereti, B. mogharensis, and Jaggermeryx naida, n. gen. n. sp.) are members of late surviving lineages with a long history in Africa, while three other species (Afromeryx grex, n. sp., A. palustris, n. sp., and Sivameryx moneyi) represent more recent immigrants from Eurasia.