New proboscideans from the early Miocene of Wadi Moghara, Egypt

Abstract

ABSTRACT Fieldwork conducted since 1981 has greatly increased the sample of proboscidean fossils from Wadi Moghara, Egypt. The Moghara proboscidean assemblage is taxonomically more diverse than previously suspected, comprising four taxa: Gomphotherium angustidens libycum, Afrochoerodon kisumuensis, cf. Archaeobelodon, and Zygolophodon aegyptensis, sp. nov. Biochronological analysis of the proboscideans supports previous findings based on the remainder of the fauna that the age of Moghara is early Miocene, approximately 18–17 Ma. The composition of the Moghara proboscidean assemblage suggests complex biogeographic distribution patterns of proboscideans throughout Eurasia and Afro–Arabia during the early Miocene. Moghara and other pene-contemporaneous Afro–Arabian sites were apparently characterized by a relatively high degree of mammalian species-level endemism.