IiJbRgiijO.,,;

XIAOMING WANG is a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los An-geles County and has been studying fossil land mammals in Asia, especially carnivores, for nearly twentyyears. He has led numerous field expeditions in northern China, primarily in Inner Mongolia and the Ti-betan Plateau. He is the lead author of Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History.

LAWRENCE J. FLYNN is assistant director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnologyat Harvard University and a vertebrate paleontologist specializing in Asian studies. He is a longtime co-investigator on the Siwalik Series of Pakistan and India, Miocene deposits well known for their richness,including large hominoids. Be is also CO-investigator with Chinese and American scholars on diverse fossildeposits in several Chinese provinces, including the late Neogene Yushe Basin.

MlKAEL FORTELIUS is professor of evolutionary paleontology at the University of Helsinki and hasconducted field-based research in Asia for more than twenty years, particularly in Turkey and China. Heis a leader in the field of paleodiet reconstruction and the use of mammalian ecometrics in paleobiologicalresearch. Since 1992, he has co-ordinated the international NOW database of Neogene mammal localitiesand species of the Old World. He is the lead editor of Geology and Paleontology of the Miocene Sinap Forma-tion, Turkey.

COVER IMAGE: About] 5Ma, in the early middle Miocene of central Asia) an agitated Kubanochoems, with characteristically high facial horns,charges up a trail in a riparian habitat. Kubunodtoerus was a large, long-legged member of the pig family (Suidae). It is charging past the fosso-rial rodent Tachyoryctoides, a fully subterranean extinct muroid unrelated to modern burrowing rodents. Both mammals are iconic for a largepart of Asia, from Mongolia and China, westward to the Aral Sea. They overlap in time, although Kubanochoerus characterizes middle Miocenefaunas, while Tachy()r.vctoid~ is commonly found in Oligocene and early Miocene assemblages. (Illustration by Mauricio Ant6n)

COVER DESIGK: Milenda Nan OkLee

cup.columbia.edu

ISBN: "17&-0-231-15012-5

1111111111111111111111111111119 780231 150125

NEOGENE BIOSTRATIGRAPHYAND CHRONOLOGY

Edited by Xiaoming Wang, Lawrence J. Flynn, and Mikael Fortelius

Supported by the Special Researches Program of Basic Science and Technology(grant no. 2006FY120400), Ministry of Science and Technology, People's Republic of China.

Columbia University PressPublishers Since 1893

New York Chichester, West Sussexcup.columbta.edu

Copyright © 2013 Columbia University PressAll rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataFossil mammals of Asia: Neogene biostratigraphy and chronology I edited by Xtaomlng wang,

Lawrence J. Flynn, and Mikael Fcrtelius.p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.Summary: "This book is on the emergence of mammals in Asia, based largely on new fossilfinds throughout Asia and cutting-edge biostratigraphie and geochemical methods of dating

the fossils and their geological substrate" -c-Provided by publisher.ISBN 978·0-231·15012-5 (cloth, alk. paper)

1. Mammals, Fossil-Asia. 2. Paleontology-Neogene. 3. Paleontology-Asia.4. Geology, Stratigraphic-Neogene. S. Geology, Stratigraphic-Asia. I. Wang,

Xiaoming, 1957- II. Flynn, Lawrence]. (Lawrence john], 1952-III. Portelius, Mikael, 1954-

QE88I.F662012569.095-dc232012008531

Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.This book is printed on paper with recycled content.

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COVER IMAGE: About 15 MOl,in the early Middle Miocene of Central Asia, an agitated Kubanochoerus, with characteristically high facial horns,charges up a trail in a riparian habitat. The Kubanochoerus was a large, long-legged member of the pig family (Suidae), with individualsof some species exceeding SOOkg.It is charging past the fossorlal rodent Tacivyoryctoides, a fully subterranean extinct muroid unrelatedto modern burrowing rodents. Tachyoryctoides was larger than the living Asiatic zokor, a mole rat of body mass typically 200 g or more.Both mammals are iconic for a large part ofAsia, from Mongolia and China, eastward to the Aral Sea. They overlap in time, althoughKubanochoerus characterizes Middle Miocene 'Iunggurrlan-age faunas, while Tac11yoryctoidcs is commonly found in Oligocene and

Early Miocene assemblages. (Illustration by Mauricio Anton)

c 10 9 8 7 6 54} 2 I

References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the editorsnor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired

or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Chapter 27Late Miocene Fossils from the Baynunah Formation,

United Arab Emirates

Summary of a Decade of New Work

FAYSAL BIBI, ANDREW HILL, MARK BEECH, AND WALID YASIN

The region of Al Gharbia (previously known as the West-ern Region) comprises much of the area of Abu DhabiEmirate west of the city ofAbu Dhabi and bears the onlyknown late Miocene terrestrial fossil biota from the en-tire Arabian Peninsula. Driving along the Abu Dhabi-AsSila' highway, which runs parallel to the Gulf coast andconnects the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia, oneencounters a landscape of low dunes to the south, andsabkha (supratidal salt flats) and the sea to the north. In-terspersed on both sides of the highway are low-lyingjebels (hills), at most rising about 60 m above the sur-rounding terrain. These jebels are capped by a resistant

gypsum-anhydrite-chert bed that produces character-istic table-top forms, or mesas. The sediments of theseflat-topped jebels have been formally described as theBaynunah Formation (Whybrow 1989) and are com-posed mainly of reddish fine- to medium-grained sandsof dominantly fluvial origin, along with brown and greensilts, alternating sand-carbonate sequences, gypsum, andfine intraformational conglomerates. Several horizonswithin the Baynunah Formation bear fossils, either bodyparts or traces, of vertebrate) invertebrate, and plant taxa(figures 27.1 and 27.2).

From the sites of Rumaitha in the east to Jebel Bara-kah in the west, and from the sites of Shuwaihat in thenorth to Jaw Al Dibsa in the south, the area across whichthe Baynunah Formation is exposed forms a long east-west trending quadrangle measuring 180 x 4S krn, cover-ing 8100 km2 (figure 27.3). Interspersed within this areaare over two dozen documented sites from which fossil

remains have been collected over three decades. Thesefossils include remains of hippopotamus, giraffes, croco-diles, rodents, turtles, catfish, ratites, machairodont felid,and hyaenids, as well as bivalves, gastropods, and fossilwood. The Baynunah Formation records a time when aperennial river supported a rich ecosystem in what isnow a hyperarid part of the world.

Byway of biochronology, the Baynunah fossil fauna isestimated to be between 8 Ma and 6 Ma (Whybrow andHill 1999). No other terrestrial fossil sites of late Mio-cene age are known from the remainder of the ArabianPeninsula. The Baynunah faunal then, represents the solesample available to chart the biotic continuity betweenlate Miocene Arabia and neighboring contemporaneousfossil sites in Asia (e.g., Siwaliks, Marageh), the Mediter-ranean (Pikermi, Samos), and Africa (Sahabi, Toros-Menalla, Lothagam, Tugen Hills).

Since the publication of a monographic treatment ofthe Baynunah fossils (Whybrow and Hill 1999), renewedfieldwork activities have brought new light to elements ofthe Baynunah fossil fauna. This chapter summarizes thelatest knowledge on the fossil biota of the late MioceneBaynunah Formation.

HISTORY OF EXPLORATION

The first indications of the presence of vertebrate fossilsfrom AI Gharbia came with the explorations of oil geolo-gists working in the 1940s {Hill, Whybrow, and Yasin

S84 WEST ASIA AND ADJACENT REGIONS

Figure 27.1 Excavating lower jaws of a proboscidean at the site of Hamra 3-1. To the south. in the background, are the upper beds of theBaynunah Formation. Taken on December 17, 2007.

1999). The first publication of fossil remains from AlGharbia came with Glennie and Evarny's (1968) descrip-tion offossil root casts and mention of proboscidean toothremains from Jebel Barakah. Peter Whybrow (NaturalHistory Museum, London [N.H.M.l) made fossil discov-eries in Al Gharbia in 1979 and 1981, and described addi-tional fossil root casts that he interpreted as mangroves(Whybrow and McClure 1981). In 1983, an archaeologi-cal survey of Al Gharbia by the Abu Dhabi Department ofAntiquities and Tourism including Yasin and a team ofGerman archaeologists (Vogt et a1. 1989) resulted in thefirst significant collection of fossils from a number of sitesin Al Gharbia. Upon invitation of the Department of An-tiquities, Hill in 1984 visited Abu Dhabi to evaluate therecently collected fossils. In 1986, collaborative work be-gan between Whybrow and Hill, and in 1989 a joint Yale--N.H.M. expedition was initiated to study the Al Gharbiafossil deposits. Extensive work on the Baynunah Forma-tion, up to 1995, was given monographic treatment inFossil Vertebrates of Arabia (Whybrow and Hill 1999).Beginning in 2002, the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeologi-cal Survey, including Beech, undertook work on the Bay-nunah deposits. This included the discovery and salvage

of important new sites (Beech and Higgs 200S), includingsites preserving footprint trackways (Higgs et a1. 2003).In 2003, Bibi was invited by the Abu Dhabi Public WorksDepartment to further explore the Baynunah deposits.Two visits to Al Gharbia in that year with small teams re-sulted in the discovery of new sites and some 200 newfossil specimens, including the ratite Diamaniornis laini(Bibi et aJ. 2006). In December 2006, Bibi and Hill joinedBeech and Yasin under the invitation of the newly estab-lished Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage(A.D.A.C.H.) for a brief survey of the Al Gharbia sites.Since the completion of this chapter, A.D,A.C.H. has be-come the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority(A.DT.C.A.). December 2007 saw the inception of thecurrent Yale-A.D.A.C.H. project, with annual fieldworkexpeditions to the Baynunah Formation.

FOSSIL FAUNA OF THE BAYNUNAHFORMATION

An up-to-date listing of the entire Baynunah fossil faunais given in table 27.1. Fieldwork since 1995 (Whybrowand

LATE MIOCENE FOSSilS FROM THE BAYNUNAH FORMATION. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 585

GPTS(Cande & Kent1995)

Baynunah Magnetostratigraphy(Hallwood & Whybrow 1999)

Baynunah Stratigraphy(Ditchfield1999)

D[J

c:.~E?« 0u,

\- I

s:mc

7.01 ~

~c~ti'i

coE'§mEo ~~

Displacive gypsum/anhydritecaprock with tabular cherts

Interbedded fine grained sandstonesand micritic white limestones with gastropodmolds and footprints

Interbedded fine grained sandstonesand days

Large scale cross-bedded finegrained sandstone with abundantrootlets

~ Footprint fossils "t:! Body fossils

Intra-formational conglomerates andsandstones with fossil remainsAeolian layers interspersed

Conglomerate containingextra-formational clasts

Mudstone with gypsum sheets

Dune bedded aeolian sandstone

Wavey laminated overbank depositswith abundant celestite rootletsFine grained fluvial sandstone withclimbing ripples, clay drapes andsoft sediment deformation

Dolomites with marine bivalves andabundant otspfactve anhydrite

Figure 27.2 Stratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy of the Baynunah Formation. Body fossils (of vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants) are recov-ered from multiple horizons in the lower part of the Baynunah, while footprint fossils are recorded from carbonates correlating to the upper por-tion. Stratigraphic column reproduced from Ditchfie!d (1999:fig. 7.2), and paleomagnetic data from Hailwood and Whybrow (1999:fig. 8.5). Thehigh frequency of polarity reversals in the period between 8 Ma and 6 Ma (Cande and Kent 1995) means any correlation of the Baynunah with theGPTS is equivocal, but the presence of at least four reversals in the Baynunah suggests a duration of 300,000 yr or more for this formation.

Hill 1999) has added the following taxa to the Baynunahfossil faunal list: two species of snake, one of which maybe a colubrid; a sawfish (Pristidae); eggshells of two dif-ferent ratites, Diamalltomis laini and an aepyornithid-like form (Bibi et al. 2006); an anhinga (Stewart and Beech

2006); the giraflid Palaeotragus cf germaini, and a sciuridrodent (Kraatz, Bibi, and Hill 2009). These come in addi-tion to Significant new material found of already-recordedtaxa that will increase knowledge of the recorded formsand result in further taxonomic resolution. Among these

586 WEST ASIA AND ADJACENT REGIONS

•lawAIOibsa qida' AIMoutawi'a•

Africa Saudi Arabia

Ocean

• 00Mleisa

~~Rumaitha

Oman

Figure 27.3 Map and satellite image of AI Gharbia showing main fossil localities. Black circles denote localities with body fossils; white circles

denote fossil trackway sites.

are ostracods and foraminifera from the carbonates ofthe upper Baynunah, additional remains of the thryono-myid (cane rat) that suggest assignment to Paraulacodusand additional remains of the endemic gerbil Abudhabiabaynunensis; a ratite synsacrum larger than that of modernStruthio that might be associated with either fossileggshelltype; new mandibular remains ofHipparion that will helpfurther characterize H. abudhabiense (originally diagnosedon a partial mandible); relatively abundant remains of fos-sil proboscideans, including several mandibles, tusks andtusk fragments, a cranium, and postcrania attributable to

Stegotetrabelodon syrticus, and mandibles of the shovel-tusked proboscidea» (Amebelodon/"Mastodon" grandinci-sivus); and a deciduous monkey premolar, only the secondprimate specimen to have come from the Baynunah For-mation (Hill and Gundling 1999).

In addition, fossil trackway sites have been discovered(figure 27.4), adding a new dimension of study to theBaynunah fossil fauna (Higgs et al. 2003; Higgs, Gar-dener, and Beech 2005). Currently, at least three sites areknown at which footprint remains of proboscideans andungulates are preserved in carbonates (figure 27.3). These

co"~

~.,-;;>iii

c.~

'0•z

LATE MIOCENE FOSSilS FROM THE BAVNUNAH FORMATION. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 589

Figure 27.4 One of at least 10 proboscidean trackways at the site ofMleisa 1.

same carbonates also preserve molds of gastropods pro-posed to be "Icerithid" (Ditchfield 1999).

PALEOENVIRONMENTS OF THE BAYNUNAH

Despite the presence of a perennial river system in AlGharbia, the environment in this region was clearly aridduring the late Miocene. Though arid environmentsare clearly recorded in the sediments of the ShuwaihatFormation underlying the Baynunah (Bristow 1999),there is no unambiguous sedimentological evidence forarid environments in the Baynunah Formation. Fine- tomedium-grained quartz sands with frosted grains (D.Peppe, pers. comm.) and large-scale cross-beds are com-monly observable. Gypsum-cemented root casts arepresent in many such layers, which Glennie and Evamy

(1968) interpreted as the remains of dune-stabilizingvegetation (contra Whybrow and McClure 1981).

Paleocurrent readings indicate Baynunah rivers de-rived from the northwest or west as outlined by Friend(1999). Topographically, the most likely western water-shed and source that could provide a river system to theAl Gharbia area is the Wadi Sahba in Saudi Arabia (e.g.,Whybrow and Hill 2002). A modern analogue for theBaynunah River can be sought in the Nile, which todayflows its course through hyperarid parts of Sudan andEgypt. A late Miocene river system that is broadly analo-gous to the Baynunah one is the As Sahabi River, whichtook its source largely from the Tibesti Mountains inChad and flowed north through a proto-Sahara to emptyin the Mediterranean (Drake, El-Hawat, and Salem2008).

Though no clear aeolian beds are present in the Bay-nunah, the underlying Shuwaihat Formation includeswithin it large aeolian dune beds (Bristow 1999). Muchas Schuster et al. (2006) interpreted aeolian beds fromthe northern Chad Basin to indicate the onset of deserticconditions in the Sahara by around 7 Ma, the presence ofaeolian deposits in the Shuwaihat Formation providesearly evidence for the presence of desert conditions in theArabian Peninsula going back to at least the late Mio-cene. The Shuwaihat Formation dune beds may push theevidence for desertification in Arabia even further back,if the age of this formation is accepted as being middleMiocene (15 ± 3M. in Hailwood and Whybrow 1999).

The upper parts of the Baynunah Formation bearabout a 15 m sequence of fine sands and clays alternatingwith carbonates. The carbonates are resistant to erosionand are extensively exposed several kilometers inland asdeflated surfaces that are highly reflective and easily visi-ble from satellite imagery (see figure 27.1). Within theselarge exposures are located three footprint sites, two ofthese recording proboscidean trackways (Higgs et al.2003) and one site with an ungulate trackway. 'Thesesame carbonates include ostracods and molds of gastro-pods resembling cerithids, suggesting a marine or brack-ish water origin. Shells ofMelanoides reported from abovethe Mleisa 1 trackway carbonate by Higgs et a1. (2003)are suspiciously well preserved. Despite years of field-work, no other occurrences of Melanoides have ever beenfound, neither at Mleisa 1 nor at any other site from theBaynunah Formation. Accordingly, we suspect the Mleisa1 Melanoides to be surface finds not deriving from theBaynunah Formation itself.

The Baynunah deposits are exposed over a long areathat is parallel to the coastline and that at its widestreaches at least 4S km (see figure 27.3). It is apparent that

590 WES'T ASIA AND ADJACENT REGIONS

the original river system ranged over an even wider areain the course of its temporal span. A single fossil vertebrarecovered in December 2007 is identifiable as a sawfish(Chondrichthyes: Pristidae). Living sawfish are knownto inhabit shallow marine or estuarine environments, of-ten swimming far up river. The discovery of sawfish re-mains among the Baynunah fauna begs further consider-ation of the proximity of the marine shoreline to theBaynunah fluvial system. It is conceivable that a proto-Gulf seaway may have been in existence, even thoughintermittently, in the area to the north or west of lateMiocene Al Gharbia.

PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE BAYNUNAH

The geographic location of the Baynunah Formation, at alocus between the Asian, European, and African conti-nents, is reflected in its fossil fauna (see table 27.1), whichcomprises a unique mix of taxa not found together else-where. Taxa known from the Siwaliks, such as the bovidPachyportax latidens and the suid Propotamochoerus hy-sudricus, are found with otherwise African taxa, includ-ing the ratite Diamantornis laini, the hippopotamid Ar-ehaeopotanltls, and the giraffid Palaeo tragus cf. germaini.Perhaps with the exception of the bivalve Legumillaia,all Baynunah fossil taxa are shared between either Afri-can or southern Asian (Siwaliks) faunas, with no taxauniquely indicative of the Greco-Irano-Afghan zone (deBonis et al. 1992). This is intriguing given the relativeproximity of sites such as Injana (Brunet and Heintz1983) and Marageh (Bernor 1986). It appears that fau-nal exchange was very much a function of latitude, withenvironmental factors permitting biotic dispersal ineast-west directions and restricting it in north-southdirections. The Himalayan-Zagros-Tauride mountainrange has been proposed as a dispersal barrier through-out the late Miocene between sites in the Siwaliks/Iraqand the Greco-Afghan biogeographic zone (Brunet andHeintz 1983; Brunet et al. 1984; Beden and Brunet1986).

The Baynunah fauna includes a much larger number oftaxa in common with African rather than Siwaliks as-semblages (see table 27.1). Three African sites dating tobetween 8 Ma and 5 Ma and with extensive faunal listsare chosen for comparison with the Baynunah: Toros-Menalla (Chad; Vignaud et al. 2002), the Lower Memberof the Nawata Formation at Lothagam (Kenya; Leakeyand Harris 2003), and Sahabi (Libya; Boaz et al. 2008),but collections from the Mpesida Beds and Lukeino For-mation of the Tugen Hills, Kenya, are also relevant to this

discussion (Hill et al. 1985; Hill 1999a, 1999b, 2002).Each of these three sites is situated within a different Af-rican region, and each shares taxa in common with theBaynunah fauna. Baynunah taxa with affinities to Sahabiinclude Geochelone (Centroehelys) aff. sulcata, Myoeriee-todon, and Amebelodoll/"Mastodon" grandineisivus. Taxain common between the Baynunah and the Lower Nawatainclude ArcTtaeopotamtis aff lothagamensisJ Diamantornisiaini, and perhaps Paraulacodus.

CHRONOLOGY AND DURATION

No tuffs Of other volcanics are present in the Shuwaihator Baynunah formations. As a result, age estimates forthe Baynunah so far derive exclusively from biochro-nological correlations. Previous age estimates based onbiochronology had placed the Baynunah fauna at some-where between 8 Ma and 6 Ma in age. More recently,Archaeopotamus (Boisserie 2005) and Diamantornis laini(Harris and Leakey 2003; Harrison and Msuya 2005;Bibi et al. 2006) have been determined to be present inthe Baynunah fauna. These two taxa are also present inthe Nawata Formation, specifically in the Lower Mem-ber but not the Upper Member. While the maximum ageof the fossil fauna from the Lower Member is not pre-cisely determined, the upper limit of this member isfirmly established as at 6.5 Ma by the Marker Tuff (Mc-Dougall and FeibeI2003). Similarly, the suid Pmpotamo-choerus hysudricus (Bishop and Hill 1999) ranges from10.2 Ma to 6.8 Ma (Badgley et al. 2008). Assuming simi-lar taxonomic age ranges applied in Arabia, these threetaxa tentatively propose a minimum age limit of 6.S Mafor the Baynunah.

Kingston (1999) sampled fossil enamel from the Bay-nunah for stable carbon isotopes and discovered a domi-nant C

4-feeding Signal in teeth of Stegotetrabelodon sp.,

Hipparion abudhabiense, Hippuricn sp., ?Bramatheriumsp., Tragoportax cyrenaicus, and Archaeopotamus aff. 10-thagamensis. Analysis of paleosol carbonates indicatedthe presence of mixed C3 -C 4 habitats (but no C.-dominated habitats [Kingston 1999)). In the Siwaliksand the Tugen Hills, the first enamel isotope values indi-cating a pure C4 diet (S18C values> -2%0) do not appearuntil around 7 Ma (Cerling, Wang, and Quade 1993;Morgan, Kingston, and Marino 1994). The first C.-dominated habitats (paleosols) do not appear in theSiwaliks until 7.37 Ma (Quade et al. 1989; Quade andCerling 1995; Barry et al. 2002), though this is not ap-parent in the paleosols of the Tugen Hills sequence(Kingston, Marino, and Hill 1994). If the presence of

LATE MIOCENE FOSSILS FROM THE BAYNUNAH FORMATION, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 591

a significant C 4 component in habitats and diets can beassumed to have had a similar chronology in the ArabianPeninsula, then the presence of a strong C 4 dietary signalin the Baynunah fauna might establish the maximum ageof this assemblage as being around 7.4 Ma.

On the basis of the above evidence, then, we tenta-tively suggest a constrained age of between 7.S Ma and6.5 Ma for the Baynunah Formation. Continued fossildiscoveries and analysis will help more precisely con-strain the age of this fossil assemblage. Most promis-ing among these is perhaps the taxonomic determina-tion of the ostracods from the carbonates of the upperBaynunah.

How long the Baynunah river system was in existenceis currently not known. The collective fossil fauna ap~pears consistent with a single temporal window, but inreality a late Miocene fauna could sample a million yearsor more before biochronological inconsistencies are de-tected. The presence of up to four polarity reversals in themagnetostratigraphy of the Baynunah Formation (seefigure 27.2; Hailwood and Whybrow 1999:fig. 8.S) indi-cates at least some geologically significant duration oftime is represented. According to the geomagnetic polar-ity timescale (Cande and Kent 1995), 12 polarity rever-sals are present in the period between 8 Ma and 6 Ma,with magnetochron durations varying between 34 kaand 368 ka. This gives some indication that a span of over300 ka might easily be accommodated by the Baynunahsediments, though without a direct chronological tiepoint,it is not possible to say more at the moment. Ongoing P'"leomagnetic work promises to build amore complete andprecise local Baynunah magnetostratigraphy that willhelp better determine the age and duration of this set of

deposits.

SITE DOCUMENTATION, MAINTENANCE,AND SALVAGE

Exploratory work since 1999 has Significantly increasedthe recognized areal extent of the Baynunah fossil depos-its. In particular, this has come with the discovery of fos-sils from a number of areas further inland than had previ-ously been known. Primary among these are the sites ofJaw Al Dibsa (or Umm al-1shtan), Bida' Al Mutawa'ah,and Mleisa. Jaw Al Dibsa comprises a collection of sitesbearing remains of proboscideans, bovids, giraffids, fish,ratites eggshells, and fossil wood. The Bida' Al Mutawa'ahand Mleisa sites are fossil trackway sites where probos-cidean and ungulate footprints have been discovered(Higgs et al. 2003). The discovery of these sites has in-

creased the potential for further fossil discoveries in theAl Gharbia region. Current annual fieldwork efforts con-tinue to focus on the survey and documentation of fos-siliferous exposures inland of the coastal sites.

Paleontological work in Al Gharbia is a race againstthe rapid rate of development characteristic of the UnitedArab Emirates. All the Baynunah fossil sites are in realdanger of development activities that either destroy themor make them inaccessible to scientists. For example,sites on Shuwaihat and Jebel Dharma from which impor-tant fossil specimens were discovered and described(Whybrow and Hill 1999) have been appropriated bymilitary and oil refinery installations. The BaynunahFormation type section atJebel Barakah has itself in recentyears been greatly disturbed by earth-moving activitiesand is now in amilitary area. Access to coastal and inlandBaynunah exposures is being continually restricted bymilitary, municipality, and oil industry appropriation. Atthis rate, it will be barely a matter of a decade before almostall the fossil sites are compromised.

The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage istaking important measures toward site maintenance andawareness that in some cases have proved successful atprotecting fossil sites. These include fencing-off certainsites such as the Mleisa trackways and the placement ofsigns informing of the proximity of sites. These are, how-ever, effectively temporary measures, and without theenactment oflegislation and enforcement the fossil sitesof Al Gharbia continue to remain in real threat of darn-age. Paleontological work in the AI Gharbia region takeson the aspect of a salvage mission, whereby fossiliferousdeposits are studied and documented in anticipation oftheir being lost in the near future.

CONCLUSION

Since 1999, fossil discoveries have continued to be madein the late Miocene Baynunah Formation in Al Gharbia,Abu Dhabi Emirates. Since 1996, annual fieldwork ef-forts were restarted as a collaboration between Yale Uni-versity and the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture andHeritage, headed by the four authors. All in all, renewedefforts have resulted in the collection of hundreds of newfossil specimens, containing among them new taxa notbefore known from the Baynunah, and better representa-tion of known taxa that promises further refinement ofthe faunal list. This comes in addition to the discoveryof new fossil sites much further inland than had previ-ously been known, including sites preserving trackways ofproboscideans and an ungulate. Analyses seeking pollen,

592 WEST ASIA AND ADJACENT REGIONS

phytoliths, and an improved local paleomagnetic stratig-raphy are underway, as are sedimentological studies of thesands and carbonates of the Baynunah Formation. These,in conjunction with the information provided by thefossil remains, should help better determine the age,duration, and paleoenvironments of the BaynunahFormation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank Xiaoming Wang and the organiz-ers of the Asian Mammal Stratigraphy conference thattook place at the IVPP in Beijing in 2009 for the opportu-nity to participate in the meeting and contribute to thisvolume. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology gener-ously supported costs of travel and attendance for F.Bibi. Paleontological work in Al Gharbia is supportedby the Abu Dhabi Authority on Culture and Heritage(ADACH), the Revealing Hominid Origins Initiative(National Science Foundation, USA, grant no. 0321893),an NSF International Research Fellowship Award (grantno. OISE-08S297S), Yale Peabody Museum, Yale Uni-versity Provost's Office, Institute de PaleopnrnatologiePaleontologic Humaine (IPHEP), Agence Nationale dela Recherche ANR-09-BLAN-0238. Additional supporthas come from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Companyand the Abu Dhabi Public Works Department. We arealso grateful to the following individuals for support: M.Al Neyadi, H. H. Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan,J.-R. Boisserie, Jacques Gauthier, F. C. Howell, P. Vign-aud, Elisabeth S. Vrba, T. White, and to the following fortheir contributions to fieldwork and study: B. Kraatz, N.Craig, D. Evans, M. Fox, A. Haidar, W. Joyce, S. Lakier,O. Otero, D. Peppel M. Schuster, A. Attar, S. Majzoub, E.Moacdieh, K. Zreik. M. Fortelius, L. Flynn, A. Gentry,and one anonymous reviewer provided helpful reviewsand editorial assistance.

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