A new early Oligocene mammal fauna from the Sirt Basin, central Libya: Biostratigraphic and paleobiogeographic implications

New fossils from the Paleogene of central Libya illuminate the evolutionary history of endemic African anomaluroid rodents

“…These sites have traditionally been regarded as early Oligocene, an age determination that is strongly corroborated by our recent work in this rock unit (Coster et al, 2010(Coster et al, , 2012(Coster et al, , 2015. The recently discovered Zallah Incision local fauna, derived from the base of a fluvial channel within the CTMD, includes sirenians, anthracotheres, hyracoids, hystricognathous rodents and anthropoid primates (Beard et al, 2015a;Coster et al, 2015). Fossil mammal specimens currently known from the Zallah Incision local fauna span a wide range of sizes (from sirenian rib fragments and anthracothere cheek teeth to tiny rodent cheek teeth) and show little evidence of abrasion, suggesting minimal transport prior to deposition.…”

“…Fossil sites in the vicinity of Zallah Oasis occur in deltaic and fluvial strata in a unit that has been mapped as "Continental and Transitional Marine Deposits" or CTMD (Arambourg and Magnier, 1961;Arnould-Saget and Magnier, 1961;Arambourg, 1963;Vesely, 1985;Fejfar, 1987). These sites have traditionally been regarded as early Oligocene, an age determination that is strongly corroborated by our recent work in this rock unit (Coster et al, 2010(Coster et al, , 2012(Coster et al, , 2015. The recently discovered Zallah Incision local fauna, derived from the base of a fluvial channel within the CTMD, includes sirenians, anthracotheres, hyracoids, hystricognathous rodents and anthropoid primates (Beard et al, 2015a;Coster et al, 2015).…”

“…Type locality-Zallah 7 Incision locality, Continental and Transitional Marine Deposits (CTMD), early Oligocene of central Libya (Coster et al, 2015).…”

A new species of Apidium (Anthropoidea, Parapithecidae) from the Sirt Basin, central Libya: First record of Oligocene primates from Libya

“…Apidium zuetina from Zallah Oasis in Libya is phylogenetically close to A. phiomense from the Fayum, but A. zuetina is smaller and retains several primitive dental characters that have been modified in its nearest Egyptian relative. Based on the mammalian fauna associated with A. zuetina in the Zallah Incision local fauna, we interpret its age as close to that of Quarries V and G in the Fayum (30-31 Ma; see Coster et al, 2015). Such a correlation is consistent with the size and morphology of A. zuetina, which generally resembles A. bowni and A. moustafai from Quarries V and G in the Fayum in these respects.…”

“…Our fieldwork in 2013 led to the discovery of a new site that has already yielded a surprisingly diverse assemblage of mammals and other vertebrates, including the first Oligocene primates to be recovered from Libya. We take this opportunity to describe a new species of Apidium from Libya, which appears to be the most common primate taxon from the Zallah Incision local fauna (Coster et al, 2015).…”