Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2023, Biological Sciences (Arts and Sciences)

The Cenomanian Bahariya Formation of the Bahariya Oasis in the Egyptian Western Desert preserves one of the richest Afro-Arabian early Late Cretaceous (~98 Ma) vertebrate faunas yet discovered. This fauna includes a diversity of cartilaginous and bony fishes, plesiosaurs, squamates, turtles, crocodyliforms, and non-avian dinosaurs. The Bahariya Formation has yielded the type specimens of the non-avian theropods Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Bahariasaurus, the titanosaurian sauropods Paralititan and Aegyptosaurus, and the crocodyliforms Libycosuchus, Stomatosuchus, and Aegyptosuchus. Regrettably, most of the Egyptian archosaur collection was destroyed during World War II in the Allied bombing of Munich in April 1944. Since then, additional paleontological efforts have endeavored to rediscover the Bahariya vertebrate fauna. Over the course of the last decade, paleontological fieldwork carried out by researchers from the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP) resulted in the re-identification of previously known localities and several new vertebrate fossil localities within the Bahariya Formation. New fossils recovered from this unit include those of cartilaginous and bony fishes, plesiosaurs, squamates, turtles, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs, and non-avian dinosaurs. Here we focus on the description of recently recovered fossils referable to Pterosauria and Crocodyliformes. MUVP 507, an isolated, three-dimensionally preserved left first wing phalanx (= left manual phalanx IV-1), belongs to a medium-sized pterosaur and compares favorably with the equivalent element in ornithocheirid pterosaurs in general and exhibits anhanguerid affinities specifically. The fused and ossified proximal extensor tendon process (ETP) indicates that the individual in question was osteologically mature. The ETP of the specimen is comparable in overall morphology with that in anhanguerids, including the presence of a subrectangular extensor tubercle, the position of the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patrick O'Connor (Advisor); Nancy Stevens (Committee Member); Lawrence Witmer (Committee Member) Subjects: Geobiology; Geology; Paleontology