9408310 Tab Rasmussen/Ellen Miller During the lower Miocene, the African-Arabian and Turkish tectonic plates collide, resulting in a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. For the first time in the entire Cenozoic, animal could move between those two continents. Before then in Africa, the isolated animal species were mostly primates, elephants, hyraxes, and cerodonts. In this new period, new primates, carnivores, and hooved animals appeared for the first time, and much of the present day fauna can be traced to that period, including the origin and early evolution of the Old World monkeys. Many of these important early Miocene animals are preserved as fossils in the rocks at Wadi Moghara, although most of the African sites of this period are in the East African Rift Valley system. The taxonomic diversity of the fossils at Moghara, coupled with the site's great distance from most other early Miocene localities, makes the further study and excavation at Moghara important. This project, by a graduate student, will result in the collection of more fossil mammals from this important site, an examination of all Moghara museum specimens and important comparative collections, a revision of the systematics of the Moghara mammals, and an investigation of the relationships between these mammals and other early Miocene faunas. It will make important paleontological contributions as well as aiding in the training of a new scientist.
