Elisabethfeld (Miocene of Namibia)

Also known as "Elizabethfeldern" (Savage, 1965), Sperrgebiet, E-Feld, Tortoise Site

Where: Karas, Namibia (27.0° S, 15.3° E: paleocoordinates 27.9° S, 12.8° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Elisabeth Bay Formation, Early/Lower Miocene (23.0 - 16.0 Ma)

• The fossiliferous beds were assigned to the Elisabeth Bay Formation by Greenman (1966, unpubl. MSc thesis) but this unit, as originally defined, is penetrated by a major unconformity comprising a hiatus of about 15 Ma (Pickford & Senut, 1999, p. 61 & 76). The name Elisabeth Bay Formation here refers only to the lower, fluvial part of the series which is of Lower Miocene age (Pickford & Senut, 1999, p. 76).

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fluvial; red siltstone and green, yellow sandstone

• The Miocene sediments of the Elisabethfeld locality are interpreted as floodplain and channel deposits. They have been deposited in an incised valley that was cut into the pre-Miocene bedrock of the Namib Coastal Plain during the late Oligocene or earliest Miocene, "when the sea level was appreciably lower than it is today." Incised valley and Miocene deposits represent the so-called Proto-Kaukausib drainage system (Pickford & Senut, 1999, fig. 4-2/p. 62).
• The lowest 85 cm of the more than 5 m thick succession as exposed "west of the waterhole" are reddish, highly fossiliferous silts, partially interspersed with gypsum plates and thick lime concretions. These are overlain by a more than 4 m thick sequence of greenish and yellowish sands that also contain fossils. This series is capped by eolianites and travertine that are probably of Plio-Pleistocene age (Pickford & Senut, 1999, p. 76 and fig. 4-10).

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collected by E. Stromer, M. Pickford, B. Senut in the 1920s, 1990s, 2000s

• The squamate material listed by Rage (2008) was collected by Martin Pickford and Brigitte Senut in the course of the Namibia Paleontology Expedition (NPE) in the 1990s and 2000s and is reposited in the Geological Survey of Namibia in Windhoek.

Primary reference: J.-C. Rage. 2008. Squamate reptiles from the Lower Miocene of the Sperrgebiet, Namibia. In M. Pickford and B. Senut (eds.), Geology and palaeobiology of the northern Sperrgebiet, Namibia. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Namibia (Ministry of Mines and Energy, Windhoek) 20:93-103 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 146601: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 28.06.2013, edited by Torsten Liebrecht, Richard Butler, Evangelos Vlachos, Patricia Holroyd and Grace Varnham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Creodonta - Hyainailouridae
Isohyaenodon sp.3 Savage 1965 creodont
GT 58’07, a right mandible with the roots of m/3- p/4
Metapterodon kaiseri n. gen. n. sp.5 Stromer 1926 creodont
holotype: left skull fragment with P3 to M2 ("1926 × 1 Munich"). Referred specimens: EF 7’06, right mandíble with partly erupted m/3, alveoli of m/2, and poorly preserved d/4 or m/1. EF 93’01, fragment of left mandíble with m/1 (or d/4) and alveoli of the p/4 and p/3 (incomplete). EF 90’01, anterior fragment of right mandible with canine and incomplete alveoli of the p/2, p/3 and p/4.
 Creodonta - Hyaenodontidae
Hyaenodontidae "unnamed species"3 Leidy 1869 creodont
EF 6’04, left pisiform, "Hyainailouros or Megistotherium indet."
Namasector soriae n. gen. n. sp.3 Morales et al. 2008 creodont
EF 118’01, maxilla with M1/-P3/, alveolus of P2/. EF 50’01 and EF 60’01, left and right mandibles, EF 118’01 right P4/ and EF 118’01 right maxilla fragment with the canine root and the alveoli of P2/ and P3/.
 Carnivora - Viverridae
Viverridae "gen. et sp. indet. I"3 Gray 1821 civet
EF 45’93, left m/1 or d/4
Viverridae "gen. et sp. indet. II"3 Gray 1821 civet
EF 8’94, a fragment of right mandible with c/1-p/4 in a poor state of preservation, and EF 9’94, associated left calcaneum and astragalus
 Carnivora - Amphicyonidae
Hecubides euryodon2 Savage 1965 bear-dog
Ysengrinia sp.3 Ginsburg 1965 bear-dog
EF 196’01: left Mc II
 Theriamorpha - Tenrecidae
Promicrogale namibiensis n. gen. n. sp.4
Promicrogale namibiensis n. gen. n. sp.4 Pickford 2018 tenrec
Reptilia
 Testudines - Testudinidae
"? Testudo namaquensis n. sp." = Namibchersus namaquensis6
"? Testudo namaquensis n. sp." = Namibchersus namaquensis6 Stromer 1926 turtle
 Squamata -
Serpentes indet. Linnaeus 1758 snake
11 incomplete trunk and caudal vertebrae (EF 20’05g)
 Squamata - Boidae
Boidae indet. Gray 1825 boa
1 tooth (EF 237’01a), 1 vertebra (EF 108’01), 7 vertebrae of a single juvenile individual (EF 20’05c)
Python sp.1 Daudin 1803 boa
 Squamata -
Colubroidea indet. Oppel 1811 snake
2 incomplete trunk vertebrae (EF 71’94a and EF 20’05f), and perhaps 5 articulated vertebrae embedded in matrix (EF 16’94) and two incomplete vertebrae (EF 71’94b and EF 13’97)
 Squamata - Viperidae
Viperidae indet. Oppel 1811 viper
1 trunk vertebra (EF 56’01)
 Squamata - Colubridae
Colubridae indet. Oppel 1811 colubrid snake
1 fragmentary trunk vertebra (EF 41’00)
"Colubrinae" indet. Oppel 1811 colubrid snake
13 trunk vertebrae (EF 237’01b and EF 20’05d), 3 larger trunk vertebrae (EF 20’05e), and perhaps 7 partly articulated trunk vertebrae in matrix (EF 21’97)
 Squamata - Gekkonidae
Gekkonidae indet. Gray 1825 gecko
1 fragment of dentary (EF 20’05a)
 Squamata -
Lacertilia "unidentified gen. et sp. 1" lizard
1 fragment of dentigerous bone (EF 165’01)
Lacertilia "unidentified gen. et sp. 2" lizard
1 maxilla fragment (EF 20’05b)
Lacertilia indet. lizard
1 trunk vertebra (EF 63’00i) and 1 caudal vertebra (EF 63’00j)