Egypt

In collaboration with Duke University and the Egyptian Geological Museum, vertebrate paleontological field research is currently focused on the recovery of late Eocene and early Oligocene mammals and other vertebrates from fossil localities in the Birket Qarun, Qasr el-Sagha, and Jebel Qatrani Formations in the Fayum Depression of northern Egypt (see image below). The continental sediments in this area document at least 8 million years of terrestrial mammalian evolution, and have produced the most complete remains of Eocene-Oligocene anthropoid primates, hystricognathous rodents, hyracoids (hyraxes or dassies), proboscideans (elephants), embrithopods (extinct horned relatives of elephants and sea cows), macroscelideans (sengis or elephant-shrews), tenrecoids, creodonts, and anthracotheriid artiodactyls. A number of other mammalian groups, such as strepsirrhine primates, bats, ptolemaiids, and marsupials have also been recovered from the Fayum localities.

View to the southwest of the Fayum Depression, providing an overview of the primarily early Oligocene (foreground) and late Eocene (far distance) sediments of the Jebel Qatrani Formation. Image courtesy of Hesham Sallam.

Most of our vertebrate paleontological work in the Fayum area takes place at four primary localities (see images below) -- the earliest late Eocene (~37 million-year-old) Birket Qarun Locality 2 or BQ-2, the terminal Eocene (~34 million-year-old) Quarry L-41, and the early Oligocene (~29-30 million year old) Quarries I and M (Seiffert, 2006). Each of these quarries is worked in a different way. Work at BQ-2 proceeds by careful sweeping, brushing, and quarrying of an ironstone conglomerate, followed by screening of loose sediment. Dry screening at BQ-2 has led to the recovery of numerous isolated teeth of primates, rodents, and other small mammals. Quarrying of the green mudstone at L-41 produces fossils that are generally more complete than those from other Fayum quarries (including associations of craniodental and postcranial remains), although L-41 fossils are often crushed and distorted. At Quarries I and M, the overlying consolidated layer of "desert pavement" is swept away each year, allowing wind erosion to blow away loose sediment and expose fossils that are entombed in the underlying gravelly sands. Fossils from these localities vary in quality, but include almost complete crania of the parapithecid Parapithecus grangeri and the early catarrhine Aegyptopithecus zeuxis.

Upper left, quarrying at the earliest late Eocene (~37 million-year-old) Locality BQ-2. From left, Hesham Sallam (Oxford), Laura Stroik (Arizona State), Eugenie Barrow (Oxford), and Mohammed Magdi (Egyptian Geological Museum). Lower left, excavating a fossil at the 29-30 million-year-old Quarry M. From left, Gebeli Abu el-Kheir (EEAA), Osama Ahmad (Egyptian Geological Museum), and Elwyn Simons (Duke University). Right, extracting a delicate fossil from Quarry L-41. Clockwise from left, Alexander Liu (Oxford), Chloe Brindley (Oxford), Hesham Sallam (Oxford), Biren Patel (Stony Brook University), Mercedes Gutierrez (Washington University), Elwyn Simons (Duke University), and Mark Coleman (Stony Brook University). All images courtesy of Mark Mathison.

A recent reanalysis of the ages of major Fayum quarries concluded that the Eocene-Oligocene boundary probably occurs just above Quarry L-41, and not much higher (or lower) in the succession as had been suggested by previous studies. This level of the Jebel Qatrani Formation also marks the last appearance of four strepsirrhine primate clades (galagid lorisiforms, plesiopithecids, "djebelemurines", and adapids), which could indicate that early Oligocene climate change had a more profound effect on north African mammal faunas than was previously thought (Seiffert, 2007). In future years we will continue to examine vertebrate and floral response to early Oligocene climate change by undertaking detailed studies of mammalian and floral evolution and extinction across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, by intensifying the search for fossil localities through a problematic gap in the Jebel Qatrani Formation (i.e., between Quarry E and Quarry G), and by refining the age estimates for Fayum quarries using biostratigraphic, magnetostratigraphic, and chemostratigraphic approaches.

In 2006, 2008, and 2010, I worked with colleagues in Late Cretaceous (largely Campanian aged) beds exposed in the Dakhla and Kharga Oases of central Egypt. This work has led to the recovery of titanosaurian sauropods, ceratosaurian theropods, multiple crocodyliform taxa, marine reptiles, and exceptionally well-preserved fish. Since 2008, this project has been run as a collaboration between Hesham Sallam of Mansoura University, Patrick O'Connor of Ohio University, and Joe Sertich of Stony Brook University. For more information, visit the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology page.

Abdo Zedan, Joe Sertich (Stony Brook University), and Patrick O'Connor (Ohio University) searching for vertebrate fossils in the Dakhla Oasis area.

Kenya

In collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya, and with the support of National Geographic's Committee for Research and Exploration and Stony Brook University's Turkana Basin Institute, in May and June of 2008 Erik Seiffert, co-investigator Joe Sertich (Stony Brook Anatomical Sciences Ph.D. candidate), Joe Groenke (Anatomical Sciences Vertebrate Preparation Laboratory), and Hesham Sallam worked in Late Cretaceous beds exposed to the west of Lake Turkana in the Kaekongo area of northwestern Kenya. A KNM-University of Utah expedition to this area in 2004 recovered a diverse Late Cretaceous archosaur fauna from Kaekongo; in 2008, with the assistance of Mathew Macharwas (KNM), Anthony Moru, and Boniface Lokol, we significantly expanded the existing collection of dinosaurs and crocodyliforms from these deposits, particularly in the Natoo and Kaeriakak (Ngikalalio-kodod) areas. Abundant new cranial and postcranial material will now allow for formal description of a number of remarkable new archosaur taxa from this highly endemic fauna, including theropods, sauropods, ornithopods, dyrosaurs, and an enigmatic new crocodyliform. The fauna from Kaekongo likely represents the first diverse archosaur assemblage from post-Cenomanian deposits in Afro-Arabia, and will allow for important comparisons with broadly contemporaneous taxa from other Gondwanan landmasses. In addition to continued recovery of archosaur fossils, future work in the Kaekongo area will focus on improving age estimates for the fauna, reconnaissance for microvertebrate sites, and collection of plant macrofossils.

Joe Groenke (left) and Hesham Sallam (right) searching for vertebrate fossils in the Kaekongo area of west Turkana.

Looking toward the northern part of Lake Turkana with Mathew Macharwas of the Kenya National Museum.

Oman

In collaboration with members of the Earth Sciences Department at Sultan Qaboos University, Nancy Stevens of Ohio University, and Brian Kraatz of Western University, the Dhofar Paleontology Project aims to recover vertebrate fossils from the Eocene and Oligocene of the Dhofar Governorate in western Oman. Recent work led to the collection and analysis of the most complete fossil mammal from the Paleogene of the Arabian Peninsula -- a mandible of a new genus and species of primitive proboscidean, Omanitherium dhofarensis, described by Seiffert et al. The early Oligocene locality that yielded the Omanitherium remains will be revisited in 2012, with the goal of recovering both large and small vertebrates.

View to the southeast from Locality DPP-2010-1, the site that yielded the holotype mandible of Omanitherium dhofarensis.

Towering cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean, directly south of the vertebrate fossil-bearing localities.