Grillental 6: Early Miocene, Namibia
collected by M. Pickford and B. Senut 1990 2000

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Reptilia
6 elements
6 incomplete trunk vertebrae (GT 56’00c and GT 63’00k)
Serpentes indet. (Linnaeus 1758)
1 element
1 incomplete trunk vertebra (GT 63’00r)
Reptilia - Colubridae
3 elements
1 caudal vertebra (GT 56’00e) + 1 caudal vertebra and 1 fragmentary trunk vertebra (GT 63’00p)
3 elements
1 almost complete and 2 fragmentary trunk vertebrae (GT 63’00m to o)
Reptilia - Boidae
Boidae indet. Gray 1825
7 elements
3 teeth (GT 56’00c and GT 63’00l), 3 incomplete vertebrae (GT 66’96), 1 caudal vertebra (GT 63’00q)
15 specimens
1 incomplete compound bone (GT 18’97c), 2 anterior trunk vertebrae (GT 18’97d and e), 2 mid-trunk vertebrae (GT 18’97f and g), 1 posterior trunk vertebra (GT 18’97h), 6 incomplete trunk vertebrae (GT 18’97i to n), fragments of vertebrae (GT 18’97o), and fragmentary ribs (GT 18’97p to q), probably all belonging to a single individual
Mammalia - Creodonta
Morales and Pickford 2017
Mammalia - Carnivora - Amphicyonidae
Morales et al. 2016
see common names

Geography
Country:Namibia State/province:Karas County:Luderitz
Coordinates: 27.0° South, 15.3° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:31.9° South, 13.4° East (Wright 2013)
Basis of coordinate:stated in text
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period: Neogene Epoch: Miocene
10 m.y. bin: Cenozoic 5
Key time interval: Early Miocene
Age range of interval: 23.04 - 15.98 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Formation:Elisabeth Bay
Stratigraphic resolution:group of beds
Stratigraphy comments: 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).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: sandstone
Secondary lithology: siltstone
Lithology description: "The section consists of interbedded sands and silts bedded on a scale of 10 cm to 1 metre, and the entire succession is probably fluviatile in origin." (Pickford & Senut, 1999, p. 77)
Environment:fluvial indet.
Geology comments: The Miocene sediments of the Grillental localities 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).
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body
Size of fossils:macrofossils,mesofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:survey of museum collection
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Collectors:M. Pickford and B. Senut Collection dates:1990s and 2000s
Collection method comments: 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.
Metadata
Also known as:Sperrgebiet
Database number:168035
Authorizer:J. Mueller, P. Holroyd Enterer:T. Liebrecht, P. Holroyd
Modifier:T. Liebrecht Research group:vertebrate
Subset of collection #:168036
Created:2015-04-13 11:30:54 Last modified:2025-02-22 15:12:02
Access level:the public Released:2015-04-13 11:30:54
Creative Commons license:CC0
Reference information

Primary reference:
55022. 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]

Secondary references:

67427 J. Morales, M. Pickford, and A. Valenciano. 2016. Systematics of African Amphicyonidae, with descriptions of new material from Napak (Uganda) and Grillental (Namibia). Journal of Iberian Geology 42(2):131-150 [P. Holroyd/P. Holroyd]
64590 J. Morales and M. Pickford. 2017. New Hyaenodonts (Ferae, Mammalia) from the early Miocene of Napak (Uganda), Koru (Kenya) and Grillental (Namibia). Fossil Imprint 73(3-4):332-359 [P. Holroyd/P. Holroyd]