TZ-01 (Oligocene of Tanzania)

Also known as Songwe, Nsungwe Formation, Rukwa Basin

Where: Tanzania (8.9° S, 33.2° E: paleocoordinates 11.3° S, 29.9° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Songwe Member (Nsungwe Formation), Late/Upper Oligocene (28.4 - 23.0 Ma)

• "late Oligocene Songwe Member of the Nsungwe Formation of the Red Sandstone Group" in "a 3-4 meter thick sequence... An ash-flow tuff bed... 1.5 meters above the fossil bearing interval at TZ-01 has been dated at ~24.95 Ma" using U-Pb on detrital zircon (Stevens et al. 2009)

•most specimens are from a "2 m thick sandstone bed" (Stevens et al. 2006)

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: crevasse splay; massive, medium-grained, coarse, muddy sandstone

• "sheet flood deposits within a small, flashy discharge fluvial system that appears to have drained into a local lake or swamp" (Stevens et al. 2009) and the main bed is "interpreted as either a channel lag or flood-stage alluvial deposits" (Stevens et al. 2006)
• "poorly sorted, muddy, medium to coarse grained, massive sandstone beds... rich in microvertebrates, freshwater crustaceans and molds of freshwater gastropods and bivalves" (Stevens et al. 2009) or "a laterally extensive, richly fossiliferous, muddy sandstone unit" ((Stevens et al. 2006)

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

• material consists of "small (< 4 cm) cranial and dental remains, including numerous jaws, teeth, and limb elements" (Stevens et al. 2009)

Collection methods: National Museum of Tanzania collection

Primary reference: N. J. Stevens, P. M. O'Connor, and E. M. Roberts. 2009. A hyracoid from the late Oligocene Red Sandstone Group of Tanzania, Rukwalorax jinokitana. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29(3):972-975 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 99405: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 10.11.2010, edited by Torsten Liebrecht and Terri Cleary

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• additional taxa not described
Mammalia
 Rodentia -
Metaphiomys cf. beadnelli3 Osborn 1908 rodent
 Primates -
Anthropoidea indet.4 monkey
TNM 03100 (right distal humerus)
 Hyracoidea -
Rukwalorax jinokitana n. gen. n. sp.
Rukwalorax jinokitana n. gen. n. sp. Stevens et al. 2009 hyrax
Reptilia
 Squamata -
Alethinophidia indet.1 snake
RRBP 06119 (badly weathered vertebra)
Booidea "morphotype C"1 Gray 1825 snake
RRBP 04100 (mid-trunk vertebra)
Booidea indet.1 Gray 1825 snake
RRBP 04332 (anterior trunk vertebra)
Colubroidea "morphotype A"1 Oppel 1811 snake
RRBP 07101 (anterior or mid-trunk vertebra)
Colubroidea "morphotype B"1 Oppel 1811 snake
number of specimens not specified in the reference but probably more than one
Colubroidea "morphotype C"1 Oppel 1811 snake
RRBP 07674 (caudal vertebra)
Colubroidea indet.1 Oppel 1811 snake
RRBP 04362 (weathered mid-trunk vertebra)
 Squamata - Elapidae
Elapidae "morphotype A"1 Boié 1827 snake
RRBP 04320 (posterior trunk vertebra)
 Squamata -
Gekkota indet.2 Cuvier 1817 squamates
RRBP 13002, right maxilla with fragmentary portions of prefrontal and ?nasal/frontal