Excavations, on-going since 1979, in the elite Predynastic cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt, have revealed the burials of more than 150 domestic and wild animals. These animals, buried whole, were interred in subsidiary graves surrounding the elaborate tombs of the highest elite, who were local or possibly regional rulers in the Naqada IC-IIB period (c. 3700-3500 BC). Among the wild fauna are elephants and baboons, species that were not part of Egypt’s native fauna during the Holocene and must have been obtained from elsewhere. Here we discuss all the finds of baboons made so far. These include 20 individuals, constituting the earliest evidence for the occurrence of these primates in Egypt. Conflicting species identification in previous publications (first as Papio hamadryas and later as Papio anubis) led us to re-evaluate the diagnostic features described to differentiate them by examining a large series of modern skulls from natural history collections. Using the criteria that we found to be valid, we show that both P. hamadryas and P. anubis were present at Hierakonpolis. At least six graves contained baboons, which were buried either in groups of up to 8 individuals or as single interments. These graves can be associated with five of the mortuary complexes identified so far, covering a time span of several generations. Rachitis, observed in one very young animal is the only evidence so far for metabolic disorders that might be related to local breeding. This suggests that the baboons were not routinely bred on site and may have been imported on several occasions into Hierakonpolis, indicating more complex trade interactions with the lands to the far south than previously assumed.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
Surprisingly, after the Early Cretaceous taxonomic diversity recorded in Europe, which probably is largely an artifact of inadequate taxonomy and inflation of taxa, multituberculate mammals became extremely scarce in the Late Cretaceous in this continent, being reported exclusively from the uppermost Cretaceous continental deposits of the so-called “Haţeg Island” in Transylvania, Romania. Such mammals have been documented from the Haţeg and Rusca Montană sedimentary basins, as well as from the southwestern area of the Transylvanian Basin. All these records belong to the endemic family Kogaionidae. The present paper reports additional data related to the smallest Cretaceous kogaionid, Barbatodon oardaensis Codrea, Solomon, Venczel & Smith, 2014 based on a series of new isolated teeth recovered mainly from the type locality, Oarda de Jos (Oarda A). Furthermore, the fossil locali-ties Oarda B and Vălioara are other new occurrences for the species. Based on this new material, the intraspecific variability of B. oardaensis is confirmed and its presence is attested in the three basins. Details related to the diversity of the “Haţeg Island” kogaionids are also provided.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022 OA
Specimens deposited in Natural History Museum collections are vital for the study of biodiversity, human drivers of biodiversity loss, and other environmental and socioeconomic problems. Despite recent advances in filling our knowledge gaps regarding the myrmecofauna of Cyprus, the island’s biodiversity is considered to be under-sampled. In this article, ant specimens from Cyprus deposited at the Natural History Museums of Crete, the Agricultural University of Athens (Greece), the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève (Switzerland), the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (Belgium), and the Lund University Biological Museum (Sweden) are examined, presenting a total of 163 specimens belonging to 24 species examined. Stigmatomma denticulatum Roger, 1859 (Amblyoponinae), Myrmecina graminicola (Latreille, 1802), Stenamma debile (Foerster, 1850) (Myrmicinae), and Biogeographia 40 (1): a047 Demetriou et al., 20252 Cryptopone ochracea (Mayr, 1855) (Ponerinae) are reported for the first time for the island of Cyprus, raising its known ant diversity from 77 to 81 species, while additional distributional data are given for species with only a handful of distributional records, i.e. Tapinoma festae Emery, 1925 (Dolichoderinae), Aphaenogaster subterraneoides Emery, 1881 (Myrmicinae), and Hypoponera eduardi (Forel, 1894) (Ponerinae.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
