Wadi El-Hitan, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, of the Fayum Depression in the northeast part of the Western Desert of Egypt, has produced a remarkable collection of Eocene vertebrates, in particular the fossil whales from which it derives its name. Here we describe a new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae), Qarmoutus hitanensis, from the base of the upper Eocene Birket...

Throughout the Paleogene, most terrestrial carnivore niches in Afro-Arabia were occupied by Hyaenodonta, an extinct lineage of placental mammals. By the end of the Miocene, terrestrial carnivore niches had shifted to members of Carnivora, a clade with Eurasian origins. The transition from a hyaenodont-carnivore fauna to a carnivoran-carnivore fauna coincides with other ecological changes in Afr...

Phylogenetic relationships of the Uncinula lineage, which is the basal group in the genus Erysiphe, were investigated with 167 sequences of nuc ITS1-5. 8S-ITS2 and the 28S rDNA regions. Backbone tree analyses with six datasets and two tree-constructing methods revealed that the Uncinula lineage is divided into seven distinct clades. Clades 1-5 each contained a representative powdery mildew spec...

Clupeomorphs are found in many assemblages of the northeastern Brazil, whose ages range from the Neocomian to Paleogene. Ten species were described. Among them †Scutatuspinosus itapagipensis, a torpedo-like fish found in shales of the Marfim Formation from Bahia, remains poorly known. At first it was positioned within †Scutatuspinosinae and indicated as closely related to †Diplomystus. Diagnose...

The Paleogene carbonate deposits of Pabdeh and Jahrum formations are widespread from the northwest (Dashte Zari area) to southwest Shahrekord region in High Zagros Mountains Iran record lateral upward transition open marine into shallow water environment. Formation shows a succession pelagic hemipelagic limestone, argillaceous chert. It consists planktonic wackestone, pellet-planktonic mudstone...