Oldest co-occurrence of and from Africa-first record of squamates from the early Miocene of Moghra Formation, Western Desert, Egypt.

Lizard and snake remains from the early Miocene (Burdigalian) of the Moghra Formation, Egypt, are described herein. This material comprises the first fossil remains of squamates recovered from the otherwise rich and well known vertebrate assemblage of Moghra. The material pertains to two different genera, the varanid lizard and the pythonid snake and adds to the so far rather poorly known squamate fossil record from Africa.

The Kamil Crater in Egypt.

We report on the detection in southern Egypt of an impact crater 45 meters in diameter with a pristine rayed structure. Such pristine structures are typically observed on atmosphereless rocky or icy planetary bodies in the solar system. This feature and the association with an iron meteorite impactor and shock metamorphism provides a unique picture of small-scale hypervelocity impacts on Earth's crust.