Georgalis Georgios L, Abdel Gawad Mohamed K, Hassan Safiya M, El-Barkooky Ahmed N, Hamdan Mohamed A
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
PeerJ. 2020 May 22;8:e9092. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9092. eCollection 2020.
Lizard and snake remains from the early Miocene (Burdigalian) of the Moghra Formation, Egypt, are described herein. This material comprises the first fossil remains of squamates recovered from the otherwise rich and well known vertebrate assemblage of Moghra. The material pertains to two different genera, the varanid lizard and the pythonid snake and adds to the so far rather poorly known squamate fossil record from Africa. On the basis of the new remains, Moghra marks the oldest so far described co-occurrence of and in the African continent. The close sympatry of these two genera in the African fossil record is thoroughly analyzed and discussed, a co-existence, which is still widespread in the extant herpetofauna of the continent. Situated rather close to the so called "Levantine Corridor" and dated at the Burdigalian, practically when Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, the Moghra squamate assemblage offers the potential of important insights in the biogeography and dispersal events of vertebrate groups during the early Miocene.
本文描述了来自埃及莫赫拉组早中新世（布尔迪加尔阶）的蜥蜴和蛇化石残骸。这些化石是首次从莫赫拉丰富且著名的脊椎动物组合中发现的有鳞目化石残骸。这些化石属于两个不同的属，即巨蜥科蜥蜴和蟒科蛇，这增加了迄今为止人们对非洲有鳞目化石记录了解较少的情况。基于这些新发现的残骸，莫赫拉是非洲大陆目前已知的最早出现[具体属名未明确写出]和[具体属名未明确写出]共生的地方。对非洲化石记录中这两个属的紧密同域分布进行了全面分析和讨论，这种共生现象在该大陆现存的爬行动物区系中仍然很普遍。莫赫拉有鳞目动物组合位于相当靠近所谓的“黎凡特走廊”的地方，年代为布尔迪加尔阶，实际上是在非洲-阿拉伯与欧亚大陆碰撞之时，它为深入了解早中新世脊椎动物类群的生物地理学和扩散事件提供了重要线索。
