The Shungura Formation is a

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostrati ...

formation located in the

Omo river The Omo River (also called Omo-Bottego) in southern Ethiopia is the largest Ethiopian river outside the Nile Basin. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and it empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Kenya. The ...

basin in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. It dates to the

Late Pliocene Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

Early Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time ...

Oldowan The Oldowan (or Mode I) was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry (style) in prehistory. These early tools were simple, usually made with one or a few flakes chipped off with another stone. Oldowan tools were used during the Lower ...

tools have been found in the formation, suggesting early use of stone tools by

hominin The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The t ...

s. Among many others, fossils of ''

Panthera ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family (biology), family Felidae that was named and described by Lorenz Oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group. Reginald Innes Pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as co ...

'' were found in Member G of the formation.Sabol, 2011, p.230

Geology

The formation comprises

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too sm ...

s and

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

, deposited in a

fluvial In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...

deltaic A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rare ...

lacustrine A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

Paleobiota

Fossil content

Among many others, the following fossils have been reported from the formation:

Mammals

Chiroptera

* ''

Hipposideros ''Hipposideros'' is one of the most diverse genera of bats, with more than 70 species. They are collectively called roundleaf bats after the shape of their nasal ornament. It is the type genus of the family Hipposideridae. It is divided into spe ...

'' ** '' Hipposideros kaumbului'' * ''

Taphozous ''Taphozous'' is a genus of the family Emballonuridae. The wide distribution of the genus includes several regions of Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Africa. ''Taphozous'' comes from the Greek τάφος, meaning "a tomb". The common n ...

'' ** '' Taphozous abitus''

Rodents

* '' Aethomys deheinzelini'' * '' Arvicanthis sp.'' * '' Acomys sp.'' * '' Gerbillus sp.'' * '' Heterocephalus atikoi'' * ''

Jaculus orientalis The greater Egyptian jerboa (''Jaculus orientalis'') is a species of rodent in the family Dipodidae. It is found in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and is possibly extinct in the Negev Desert of Israel. Its natural habitats ...

'' * '' Mastomys minor'' * '' Paraxerus ochraceus'' * '' Pelomys sp.'' * '' Saidomys sp.'' * '' Tatera sp.'' * '' Xerus sp.''

Lagomorphs

* ''

Lepus capensis The Cape hare (''Lepus capensis''), also called the brown hare and the desert hare, is a hare native to Africa and Arabia extending into India. Taxonomy The Cape hare was one of the many mammal species originally described by Carl Linnaeus i ...

Eulipotyphla

* '' Crocidura aithiops''

Perissodactyls

= Chalicotheres

= * '' Ancylotherium hennigi''

= Rhinocerotidae

= * ''

Ceratotherium simum The white rhinoceros, white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros (''Ceratotherium simum'') is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists ...

'' * ''

Diceros bicornis The black rhinoceros, black rhino or hook-lipped rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis'') is a species of rhinoceros, native to eastern and southern Africa including Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania ...

= Equidae

= * '' Equus oldowayensis'' * '' Eurygnathohippus libycum'' * '' Hipparion sitifense''

Artiodactyls

= Bovids

= * ''

Aepyceros shungurae ''Aepyceros'' is a genus of African antelope that contains a single living species, the impala The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'') is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The only extant member of the gen ...

'' * ''

Antidorcas recki ''Antidorcas'' is a genus of antelope that includes the living springbok and several fossil species. Modern Taxonomy In 2013, Eva Verena Bärmann (of the University of Cambridge) and colleagues undertook a revision of the phylogeny of the trib ...

'' * ''

Gazella praethomsoni A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, ''Eudorcas'' and ''Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third f ...

'' * '' Kobus'' # '' K. ancystrocera'' # '' K. ellipsiprymnus'' # '' K. oricornis'' # '' K. sigmoidalis'' * '' Megalotragus sp.'' * '' Menelikia lyrocera'' * '' Pelorovis sp.'' * '' Redunca sp.'' * '' Syncerus cf. acoelotus'' * ''

Tragelaphus ''Tragelaphus'' is a genus of medium- to large-sized, spiral-horned antelopes. It contains several species of bovines, all of which are relatively antelope-like. Species in this genus tend to be large in size and lightly built, and have long nec ...

'' # '' T. gaudryi'' # '' T. nakuae''

= Camelids

= * '' Camelops grattardi'' * '' Camelus sp.''

= Hippopotamidae

= * ''

Hexaprotodon ''Hexaprotodon'' is an extinct genus of hippopotamid known from Asia. The name ''Hexaprotodon'' means "six front teeth" as some of the fossil forms have three pairs of incisors.

'' # '' H. protoamphibius'' # '' H. shungurensis'' * '' Hippopotamus protoamphibius''

= Suids

= * '' Kolpochoerus limnetes'' * ''

Metridiochoerus ''Metridiochoerus'' is an extinct genus in the pig family indigenous to the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Africa. It is also known as the giant warthog. Description ''Metridiochoerus'' was a large animal, in length, resembling a giant warthog. ...

'' # '' M. jacksoni'' # '' M. modestus'' * '' Notochoerus'' # '' N. euilus'' # '' N. scotti'' * '' Nyanzachoerus kanamensis''

Carnivora

* '' Enhydriodon omoensis''Grohé, Camille & Uno, Kevin & Boisserie, Jean-Renaud. (2022). Lutrinae Bonaparte, 1838 (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Lower Omo Valley, southwestern Ethiopia: systematics and new insights into the paleoecology and paleobiogeography of the Turkana otters. 21. 681-705. 10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a30. * ''

Helogale hirtula The Ethiopian dwarf mongoose (''Helogale hirtula''), also known as the desert dwarf mongoose or Somali dwarf mongoose, is a mongoose native to East Africa, particularly Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. The Ethiopian dwarf mongoose will send out war ...

'' * '' Homotherium aethiopicum''

Hyracoidea

* '' Gigantohyrax maguirei''

Proboscideans

* '' Loxodonta'' # '' L. adaurora'' # '' L. exoptata'' * ''

Palaeoloxodon recki ''Palaeoloxodon recki'' is an extinct species of elephant native to Africa during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. At up to 14 feet (4.27 metres) in shoulder height, it was one of the largest elephant species to have ever lived. It is believed that ...

Primates

= Cercopithecidae

= * '' Dinopithecus sp.'' * '' Paracolobus mutiwa'' * '' Rhinocolobus turkanaensis'' * ''

Theropithecus ''Theropithecus'' is a genus of primates in the family Cercopithecidae. It contains a single living species, the gelada (''Theropithecus gelada''), native to the Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Et ...

'' # '' T. brumpti'' # '' T. oswaldi''

= Hominins

= * '' Australopithecus sp.'' * ''

Paranthropus ''Paranthropus'' is a genus of extinct hominin which contains two widely accepted species: ''Paranthropus robustus, P. robustus'' and ''P. boisei''. However, the validity of ''Paranthropus'' is contested, and it is sometimes considered to be sy ...

'' # '' P. aethiopicus'' # ''

P. boisei ''Paranthropus boisei'' is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959, and species descrip ...

Reptiles

Euthecodon Brumpti ''Euthecodon'' is an extinct genus of long-snouted crocodile. It was common throughout much of Africa during the Neogene, with fossils being especially common in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Libya. Although superficially resembling that of gharials, the ...

Fish

* '' Auchenoglanis sp.'' * '' Clarias sp.'' * '' Gymnarchus sp.'' * ''

Polypterus ''Polypterus'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the bichir family (Polypteridae) of order Polypteriformes. The type species is the Nile bichir (''P. bichir''). Fish in this genus live in various areas in Africa. ''Polypterus'' is the only know ...

'' # ''

Polypterus bichir ''Polypterus bichir'', the Nile bichir, is a fish which lives in the Nile and some of its tributaries in Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 millio ...

'' * '' Sindacharax'' # '' S. greenwoodi'' # '' S. omoensis'' * ''

Synodontis ''Synodontis'' is the largest genus of mochokid catfishes. It is the biggest genus within the 10 genera and 190 different species in the family Mochokidae. ''Synodontis'' has over 131 different species within the genus. ''Synodontis'' are also k ...

'' # '' S. frontosus'' # '' S. schall''

Geology

Paleobiota

Fossil content

Mammals

Chiroptera

Rodents

Lagomorphs

Eulipotyphla

Perissodactyls

= Chalicotheres

= Rhinocerotidae

= Equidae

Artiodactyls

= Bovids

= Camelids

= Hippopotamidae

= Suids

Carnivora

Hyracoidea

Proboscideans

Primates

= Cercopithecidae

= Hominins

Reptiles

Fish

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading