An Nafud desert, Locality 1 (Pleistocene of Saudi Arabia)

Also known as An Nafoud

Where: Saudi Arabia (27.1° N, 39.0° E: paleocoordinates 27.0° N, 38.9° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Pleistocene (2.6 - 0.0 Ma)

• The faunal remains come from lacustrine deposits which overlie an ancient dune system and the Middle Miocene Ajfar Formation.

Environment/lithology: lacustrine; gray marl

• The lacustrine deposits fill concave depressions on top of the old white eolian sand and are commonly covered laterally by the present dune system; this indicates that they were formed in several isolated lakes which were probably not synchronous.
• The bones from locality 1 come from a light gray marl at the surface of the lacustrine deposit.

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: Locality 1 was discovered in 1995. A total of 'a few hundred specimens' have been recovered from the three localities together.

Primary reference: H. Thomas, D. Geraads, D. Janjou, D. Vaslet, A. Mesmesh, D. Billiou, H. Bocherens, G. Dobigny, V. Eisenmann, M. Gayet, F. Lapparent Broin, G. Petter, and M. Halawani. 1998. First Pleistocene faunas from the Arabian Peninsula: An Nafud desert, Saudi Arabia. Comptes Rendus Academie des Sciences, Paris, Sciences de la terre et des planetes 326:145-152 [A. Turner/H. O'Regan/M. Carrano]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 48857: authorized by Alan Turner, entered by Hannah O'Regan on 01.04.2005

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Mammalia
 Perissodactyla - Equidae
Equus sp.
Equus sp. Linnaeus 1758 horse
 Artiodactyla - Hippopotamidae
? Hexaprotodon sp.
? Hexaprotodon sp. Falconer and Cautley 1836 pygmy hippo
Tarsal and carpal bones, plus a complete 5th metacarpal (JM 301) which is slender, therefore tentatively assigned to Hexaprotodon.
 Artiodactyla - Bovidae
Pelorovis cf. oldowayensis, Alcelaphini indet.
Pelorovis cf. oldowayensis Reck 1928 antelope
Alcelaphini indet. Brookes 1876 antelope
a few isolated lower and upper molars.