Late Paleocene to Early Eocene marine vertebrates from the Uppermost Aruma Formation (northern Saudi Arabia): implications for the K-T transition

New tropical carcharhinids (chondrichthyes, carcharhiniformes) from the late Eocene–early Oligocene of Balochistan, Pakistan: Paleoenvironmental and paleogeographic implications

“…Along the northern shore of Eastern Tethys, Eocene localities that yielded selachians are mostly localised in Central Asia (e.g., Glückman, 1964;Udovichenko, 1989;Case et al, 1996;Zhelezko and Kozlov, 1999) or are often limited to small faunules, consisting of short taxonomic lists, sometimes temporally problematic or limited to the basal Eocene, including localities in Pakistan (Case and West, 1991), India (Kumar and Loyal, 1987;Bajpai and Thewissen, 2002;Rana et al, 2004Rana et al, , 2005 or in the Arabian plate (Arambourg et al, 1959;Arambourg and Magnier, 1961;Casier, 1971; Thomas et al, 1999). In the Oligocene, the situation is simpler because fossil shark studies from the eastern part of the Tethys are limited to a few localities in Central Asia (Zhelezko and Kozlov, 1999).…”

Review of the enigmatic Eocene shark genus Xiphodolamia (Chondrichthyes, Lamniformes) and description of a new species recovered from Angola, Iran and Jordan

“…No site that underwent the Early-Middle Eocene or the Oligocene has currently yielded this new species of Xiphodolamia, especially Jordan and Angola, where X. ensis occurred in the Early-Middle Eocene, or other areas as Nigeria (White, 1926(White, , 1934(White, , 1955, Togo (Cappetta and Traverse, 1988), Niger (Cappetta, 1972), Morocco (Arambourg, 1952;Noubhani and Cappetta, 1997;Tabuce et al, 2005, among others), Egypt (Dames, 1883;Case and Cappetta, 1990;Murray, 2004), the eastern Arabian peninsula (Casier, 1971;Thomas et al, 1989Thomas et al, , 1999 or West India and Pakistan (Kumar and Loyal, 1987;Case and West, 1991;Adnet et al, 2007). Marine faunas with vertebrate specimens are relatively rare in the Oligocene of Africa (Murray, 2000), hence knowledge about fossil records of selachians of that epoch and place is superficial.…”

Late Cretaceous (Campanian—Maastrichtian) marine reptiles from the Adaffa Formation, NW Saudi Arabia

“…Material subsequently recovered from the Adaffa Formation was assessed in 2006-2007 as part of a joint Saudi-Australian vertebrate palaeontology research program. This paper describes the marine reptile remains, the first documented Late Cretaceous assemblage from Saudi Arabia (the only other record is a reworked plesiosaur tooth fragment from the Paleocene-Eocene Lina Member of the Aruma Formation, NE Saudi Arabia: Thomas et al 1999), and discusses their potential palaeobiogeographical relationships.…”