Ancient Life in the Late Miocene of Arabia: Fossils of the Baynunah Formation by Dr. Faysal Bibi

Ancient Life in the Late Miocene of Arabia: Fossils of the Baynunah Formation by Dr. Faysal Bibi

About the talk:

This talk will present an overview of the years of paleontological work on the river sediments exposed in western Abu Dhabi Emirate, collectively referred to as the Baynunah Formation. The fossils of the Baynunah formation give us our only glimpse into ancient life on the Arabian Peninsula during the Late Miocene, which was around 7 million years ago. A large river system supported vegetation and diverse wildlife including no less than three species of extinct elephants. This talk will present the latest results from studies on the Baynunah fossils by an international team of experts, and that will appear in a monograph to be published in 2022.

About the speaker :

Dr. Faysal Bibi´s first experience with paleontology came while he was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. There he worked on North American fossils, participated in fieldwork in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, and started his own paleontological project in the United Arab Emirates. He went on to do a PhD on fossil bovids (antelopes) with Elisabeth Vrba at Yale University, and since that time his collaborations in African projects have expanded to include work with several international paleontological teams in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. He also directed fieldwork in Late Miocene sediments of Abu Dhabi and is currently leading an interdisciplinary team conducting yearly fieldwork in the Upper Atbara Valley of eastern Sudan. Since his PhD work, he has had a long-term interest in the evolution of antelopes (Bovidae), as studied from both modern and fossil perspectives. The approaches he employs include comparative morphology, phylogenetics (morphology & molecules), geometric morphometrics, community structure, stable isotope and ancient DNA analysis.       .