LATE EOCENE VERTEBRATE FAUNAS FROM THE QATTARA DEPRESSION IN THE WESTERN DESERT OF EGYPT

Late Eocene vertebrate fossil localities were revisited and investigated for their faunal content and biostratigraphic significance in two areas of the Qattara Depression near Siwa Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt. The first area is near the lowest point of the Qattara Depression (35 Km SE of Qara Oasis) and was previously mentioned in the literature without locality information by the late Bob Slaughter and colleagues in 1982. We relocated Slaughter’s sites in 2010, which have now yielded Priabonian (37 myr) marine vertebrates, including partial skeletons of marine mammals (archaeocete whales and sirenians), crocodiles, turtle shells, bony fishes, and shark and ray dentitions. These marine vertebrates derive from an 8-meter sedimentary interval of glauconite and glauconitic sand and shale of the Dabba’a Formation. The marine mammals are sometimes articulated and well preserved, and include the first Basilosaurus cetoides skeletons found outside North America. The second locality was prospected along the foothills of Minqar Tibaghbagh in the Qattara Depression, about 55 Km SSW of Qara Oasis, and produced vertebrate fossils from the same stratigraphic level and sedimentary facies of Slaughter’s fossil sites. Our investigation shows that the marine fauna includes remains of Eocene marine mammals (archaeocete whales and primitive dugongs), turtle shells, crocodilians, and shark and ray dentitions. The vertebrate skeletal material here is poorly preserved; however, the shark and ray dentitions are very important for environmental reconstruction and age determination of the late Eocene part of the Dabba’a Formation. The vertebrate fossils in both localities show affinities with the late Eocene faunas of the Qasr el Sagha Formation exposed in the Wadi Al Hitan World Heritage Site. Moreover, these fossils facilitate regional and global correlation with late Eocene fossils derived from marine beds in eastern Asia, northern and western Africa, and North America.