Where: Tanzania (4.8° S, 34.3° E: paleocoordinates 12.6° S, 27.0° E)
• coordinate stated in text
• small collection-level geographic resolution
When: Lutetian (47.8 - 41.3 Ma)
• Harrison et al. (2001) report a middle Eocene (Lutetian) 206Pb/238U age of 45.83 ± 0.17 Ma from a single zircon crystal which was recovered from the stream bed at Mahenge in 1996. There are several arguments linking the respective crystal to the Mahenge diatreme. Recent catchment area of the stream crossing the Mahenge diatreme is small (7.2 km2). It covers Archaean metamorphics and plutonics and no other known diatreme. The catchment area can be expected not to have varied much since formation of the peneplain in the Cretaceous. Therefore, the crystal with a middle Eocene age found in the stream bed at Mahenge can most probably be related to the Mahenge eruptive event and could be only slightly older than the lake at Mahenge.
• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution
Environment/lithology: crater lake; lithified siltstone
Size class: macrofossils
Preservation: mold/impression
Collection methods: Repository: Ditsong National Museum of Natural History (TMSA)
Primary reference: T. M. Kaiser, J. Ansorge, G. Arratia, V. Bullwinkel, G. F. Gunnell, P. S. Herendeen, B. Jacobs, J. Mingram, C. Msuya, A. Musolff, R. Naumann, E. Schulz, and V. Wilde. 2006. The maar lake of Mahenge (Tanzania) – unique evidence of Eocene terrestrial environments in sub-Sahara Africa. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften 157:411-431 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details
Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis
PaleoDB collection 206377: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 13.11.2019
Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)
Taxonomic list
Amphibia | |
Pipidae indet. Gray 1825 clawed frog | |
Insecta | |
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Mahengea mckayi n. gen. n. sp.2
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Angiospermae | |
Mimosoideae indet. Linnaeus 1753 legume
"Leguminosae indet." = Fabaceae Lindley 1836 legume
Caesalpinioideae indet. legume
cf. Cynometra indet. Linnaeus 1753 legume | |
Aphanocalyx | |
Aphanocalyx singidaensis Herendeen and Jacobs 2000 |