Early guenon from the late Miocene Baynunah Formation, Abu Dhabi, with implications for cercopithecoid biogeography and evolution.

A newly discovered fossil monkey (AUH 1321) from the Baynunah Formation, Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is important in a number of distinct ways. At ∼ 6.5-8.

A new fossil thryonomyid from the Late Miocene of the United Arab Emirates and the origin of African cane rats.

Cane rats (Thryonomyidae) are represented today by two species inhabiting sub-Saharan Africa. Their fossil record is predominately African, but includes several Miocene species from Arabia and continental Asia that represent dispersal events from Africa. For example, Paraulacodus indicus, known from the Miocene of Pakistan, is closely related to living Thryonomys.

Early evidence for complex social structure in Proboscidea from a late Miocene trackway site in the United Arab Emirates.

Many living vertebrates exhibit complex social structures, evidence for the antiquity of which is limited to rare and exceptional fossil finds. Living elephants possess a characteristic social structure that is sex-segregated and multi-tiered, centred around a matriarchal family and solitary or loosely associated groups of adult males. Although the fossil record of Proboscidea is extensive, the origin and evolution of social structure in this clade is virtually unknown.