Exploration for Early Anthropoids and other Primates in Western Egypt

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Final report Exploration for Early Anthropoids and Other Primates in Western Egypt Principal Investigator: Erik R. Seiffert, Stony Brook University

In October and November of 2008, a team of paleontologists that included myself, Dr. Patrick O’Connor (Ohio University), Dr. Joseph Sertich (then at Stony Brook University, now Curator of Paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science), and Dr. Hesham Sallam, now of Mansoura University) spent a total of four weeks exploring terrestrial and near-shore sediments of Late Cretaceous age in the Dakhla and Kharga Oases of western Egypt, with the goal of recovering vertebrate fossils. This team combined experts on mammalian evolution in Africa (Seiffert), dinosaur evolution in Africa (O’Connor and Sertich), crocodile evolution in Africa (Sertich), and Late Cretaceous stratigraphy of Egypt (Sallam). We were also joined by then-Ph.D. student Haytham El-Atfy of Mansoura University (now at the Senckenberg Research Institute, Department of Palaeontology and Historical Geology). Part of the impetus for this work was the prior publication of several studies of DNA sequences that estimated divergence dates for mammals, birds, and other vertebrates, and suggested that placental mammals (including primates) and modern birds (among other clades) might be expected in the Late Cretaceous fossil record of Africa and Arabia, a time and place in Earth history that remains very poorly explored. Our goal was to test these and other hypotheses by collecting mammals and other vertebrates from horizons in the Qusier Group of the Dakhla and Kharga Oases and the Duwi and Dakhla Formations in Dakhla Oasis. Originally proposed as a collaboration between Oxford University and the Egyptian Geological Museum, this work was ultimately carried out (and continues to be carried out) as a collaboration between Stony Brook University, Ohio University, and Mansoura University. Our team managed to recover several important vertebrate fossils, some of which have been described in peer-reviewed publications (either already published, or in preparation) or were described preliminarily in podium or poster presentations at major international meetings of vertebrate paleontologists (see “Outcomes”). Our team single-


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