The Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Bahariya Formation, which forms most of the floor of the Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, is of great interest to students of dinosaur evolution for having yielded the type specimens of the extraordinary theropod Spinosaurus and the giant sauropod Paralititan, among others. Our recent paleontological fieldwork at Gebel El Dist and surrounding areas within the oasis has resulted in the discovery of new vertebrate fossil-bearing localities within different levels of the Bahariya Formation. The recovered fossils include: (1) a centrum of a plesiosaur pectoral vertebra, with a semi-rounded rib facet; (2) a quadrate of an unidentified large-bodied diapsid animal, with a dorsomedial expansion, relatively small pterygoid flange, and mediolaterally elongate ento- and ectocondyles; (3) a well-preserved cervical vertebra of an abelisaurid theropod that is relatively short and that has a neural spine that is taller than its epipophyses, suggesting a robust neck comparable to those of the Patagonian abelisaurids Carnotaurus and Ekrixinatosaurus (which are estimated at up to 9 m in body length and 2,000 kg in mass); (4) a left first wing phalanx of a medium-sized pterosaur, which has an ossified, medium-sized extensor tendon process with a shallow, open saddle and that bears large cotyles with the posterior process at the proximal end of the phalanx suggesting tight articulation with metacarpal IV; (5) a right dentary of a crocodylomorph that possesses enlarged teeth in the first and fourth alveoli, the latter followed by seven smaller teeth. The new discoveries might represent the first abelisaurids from the Bahariya Formation, and the first record of pterosaurs from all of Egypt. |
