Late Miocene primate fauna, flora and initial palaeomagnetic data from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Whybrow, Peter J.; Hill, Andrew; Al-Tikriti, Walid Yasin; Hailwood, E. A.

doi:10.1016/0047-2484(90)90066-k

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Although Arabia is a large area of the earth, fossil monkeys have so far been represented by only a single specimen, an isolated male lower canine (AUH 35), discovered in 1989 by A.H. and Peter Whybrow in the late Miocene Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (22)(23)(24)(25). The specimen came from Jebel Dhanna, site JDH-3 (JD-3 in refs.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Early guenon from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, with implications for cercopithecoid biogeography and evolution

Gilbert

Bibi

Hill

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Significance The primate subfamily Cercopithecinae represents the most diverse and successful living Old World primate group, with a current distribution throughout Africa and Asia. However, how and when these monkeys dispersed out of Africa is not well understood. This paper is significant in its description of a ∼6.5–8.0 million-y-old fossil guenon from Arabia representing the earliest cercopithecine (and only guenon) yet known outside of Africa. Furthermore, this specimen extends the guenon fossil record by at least 2.3 million y and may represent the earliest known cercopithecine as well. Because Old World monkeys appear to have dispersed out of Africa sometime during the Late Miocene, the Arabian fossils also have implications for dispersal scenarios in Old World monkey biogeography and evolution.

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Radiometric dates are not available for the Baynunah Formation, and paleomagnetic estimates are not well resolved (22,36). Biochronological comparisons with African and Asian faunas indicate an age between 8 Ma and 6.5 Ma, and most probably around 7 Ma (29,30,37,38).…”

Section: Geological Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Early guenon from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, with implications for cercopithecoid biogeography and evolution

Gilbert

Bibi

Hill

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The first proboscidean specimen from the Baynunah Formation, discovered during geological exploration at Jebel Barakah (Glennie and Evamy 1968;Whybrow 1989;Hill et al 2012), is an isolated lower molar of a gomphotheriid originally designated as Stegotetrabelodon grandincisivus (Madden et al 1982). Fragments of deinothere molar loph(id)s were subsequently recovered from the formation (Whybrow et al 1990). The majority of the remaining proboscidean specimens from the Baynunah Formation belong to a new, primitive species of elephant, previously identified as Stegotetrabelodon syrticus (Tassy 1999).…”

Section: Proboscidea-sandersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vertebrate fossils from Baynunah Formation localities in western Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates, recovered since the 1940s, include the only reported late Miocene terrestrial mammals from the Arabian Peninsula (Whybrow et al 1990;Hill 1999;Whybrow and Clements 1999;Hill et al 2012;Bibi et al 2013). This taxonomically diverse mammalian assemblage, comprising rodents, soricids, carnivores, perissodactyls, cetartiodactyls, primates, and proboscideans, provides robust evidence for investigation of faunal evolution, biogeography, and paleoecology in the region during the time of its accumulation (Hill and Gundling 1999;Stewart 2005;Hill et al 2012;Bibi et al 2013;Gilbert et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proboscidea from the Baynunah Formation

Sanders¹

2021

Preprint

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The Baynunah Formation provides the only late Miocene record of fossil proboscideans from the Arabian Peninsula, identifiable as a deinothere, tetralophodont gomphothere(s), and stegotetrabelodont elephant. Ichnofossils show the oldest evidence for modern-type elephant herd structure. The elephant sample is particularly abundant, and newly-recovered fossils yield critical evidence about their systematics and biology. Comparative results show that the Baynunah stegotetrabelodont belongs in a new species, and that in many ways it is the most primitive of all elephants —supporting a geological age of 8.0-6.0 Ma—consistent with having evolved in Afro-Arabia from Tetralophodon between 9.0-8.0 Ma. Body size analyses reveal that these elephants were exceptionally tall and heavy, possibly exceeding 10,000 kg. Tooth emergence is reconstructed as dp2-dp3-dp4-p3-m1-p4- m2-m3. The taxonomic composition and dietary preferences of the Baynunah proboscideans indicate the presence of heterogeneous local habitats in the region during the late Miocene, though the high abundance of the stegotetrabelodont, and the rarity of the deinothere and gomphothere(s) indicate a dominance of grassland habitats and a lesser representation of wooded areas.

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“…The age of the Baynunah Formation contains no datable tuffs or volcanic deposits, and its age constraints rely primarily on biostratigraphic correlations to better-dated East African and Asian fossil faunas (Whybrow and Hill, 1999;Bibi et al, 2013). For example, the occurrence of the early samples were collected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetostratigraphy of the Baynunah Formation

Peppe¹,

Evans²,

Beech³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The Baynunah Formation in the Al Gharbia region of Abu Dhabi Emirate was deposited by a major fluvial system and preserves the only known late Miocene terrestrial fossils in the Arabian Peninsula. We analyzed paleomagnetic samples from six sections (Jebel Barakah, Shuwaihat 2, Hamra 5, Mleisa 1, Mleisa 2, and Kihal 2) to develop a polarity stratigraphy for the Baynunah Formation. Based on these analyses, we documented a magnetic polarity stratigraphy, which, in combination with lithostratigraphy, allows us to propose a correlation of these six sections and their fossil localities. We show that first-order facies variations in the Baynunah Formation are diachronous. Confident correlations with the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale during the late Miocene cannot be determined; however, correlations based on the local polarity stratigraphy and biostratigraphy suggests that the Baynunah Formation was deposited over a duration of less than 750 kyr between ~7.7 and ~7.0 Ma during the late Tortonian and early Messinian. These results suggest that the fossil sites occurring throughout the lower part of the Baynunah unit and the fossil trackway sites found in the upper part of the formation are likely no more than a few hundred thousand years apart and could have been generated by the same taxa.

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Late Miocene primate fauna, flora and initial palaeomagnetic data from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Cited by 14 publications

References 4 publications

Early guenon from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, with implications for cercopithecoid biogeography and evolution

Early guenon from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, with implications for cercopithecoid biogeography and evolution

Proboscidea from the Baynunah Formation

Magnetostratigraphy of the Baynunah Formation

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