Mahenge (Eocene of Tanzania)

Where: Tanzania (4.8° S, 34.3° E: paleocoordinates 12.6° S, 27.0° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Lutetian (47.8 - 41.3 Ma)

• "early middle Eocene (Lutetian)... A Pb-U date of 45.83 Ma (+/0 0.17) was recently obtained from a zircon crystal at the base of the Mahenge sequence" (Gunnell et al. 2003)

•"Layers 7 and 8... are the most productive... these alone have yielded 57 per cent of the fishes, 56 per cent of the leaves and all of the insects" (Báez and Harrison 2005)

• member-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: crater lake; lithified, calcareous mudstone and poorly lithified shale

• Kimberlites in lacustrine deposits are exploted for diamond production and are common in areas of Tanzania and Bostwana.
• "an alternating series of well-stratified calcareous mudstones and soft friable shales containing well-preserved fossils" (Báez and Harrison 2005)

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression

Collected in 1996

Collection methods: quarrying, mechanical, peel or thin section,

• Cuticle preparations were unsuccessful because cuticle is poorly preserved. Crearings of leaflets were prepared according to the methods in Herendeen and Dilcher (1990).

•National Museum of Tanzania collection

Primary reference: P. S. Herendeen and B. F. Jacobs. 2000. Fossil Legumes from the Middle Eocene (46.0 Ma) Mahenge Flora of Singida, Tanzania. American Journal of Botany 87(9):1358-1366 [H. Wang/M. Arakaki/H. Wang]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 31499: authorized by Hongshan Wang, entered by Monica Arakaki on 14.05.2003, edited by John Alroy

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

unclassified
  -
Angiospermae
 Fabales - Fabaceae
Acacia mahengense n. sp. Herendeen and Jacobs 2000 wattle
Amphibia
 Salientia - Pipidae
Singidella latecostata n. gen. n. sp.1
Singidella latecostata n. gen. n. sp.1 Báez and Harrison 2005 clawed frog
type and one other specimen are from Sublevel 7; two referred speciens are from Level 8
Mammalia
 Chiroptera - Tanzanycterididae
Tanzanycteris mannardi n. gen. n. sp.2
Tanzanycteris mannardi n. gen. n. sp.2 Gunnell et al. 2003 bat
Actinopteri
 Teleostei -
Osteoglossomorpha indet.1 Greenwood et al. 1966
 Osteoglossiformes - Osteoglossidae
 Characiformes -
Eocitharinus macrognathus n. gen. n. sp.3
Eocitharinus macrognathus n. gen. n. sp.3 Murray 2003
 Siluriformes - Claroteidae
 Life -
Aphanocalyx singidaensis n. sp. Herendeen and Jacobs 2000