On December 4th Khalafallah Salih successfully defended his PhD on the Diversity and Systematics of the Late Cretaceous Crocodyliformes of Sudan at the Technische Universität Berlin. Congratulations Khalaf!

Faysal Bibi just returned from Abu Dhabi for filming part of a documentary by PBS and Smithsonian Channel on the evolution of elephants. Shooting took place at the site of Mleisa 1, which records the trackways of prehistoric elephants that walked across the Abu Dhabi landscape 7 million years ago. The site is important because … More Elephants of Abu Dhabi

In January 2018, Faysal Bibi led an international team in a paleontological survey of the middle Atbara River and Setit River Valleys in eastern Sudan. Previous work had documented the presence of middle to late Pleistocene sites in the region and our team discovered many more new localities and a diverse fauna. This work was … More New Pleistocene fieldwork in Sudan

In April 2017, our team described a new species of fossil hippopotamus from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation in the United Arab Emirates. In a study published in the journal Palaeovertebrata, scientists led by Jean-Renaud Boisserie described the species Archaeopotamus qeshta, a primitive hippo with close relatives previously described from late Miocene to early Pleistocene sites … More A new fossil hippo from Abu Dhabi

The year is almost over, and there have been quite a few changes. First and foremost, Gabi successfully defended her dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Sobral! Also, Sebastian won the 2nd place in the student competition at the annual meeting of the Herpetological Association of Africa. Congrats also here! Finally, Christy will be leaving the lab to … More Congrats Gabi, Sebastian, Christy

Johannes spent much of January in sunny Sudan for paleo field work. Here’s a pic of the crew.