The fishes of Bukwa, Uganda, a lower Miocene (Burdigalian) locality of East Africa
Date
2017-06-22
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
ABSTRACT—Renewed research at the early Miocene fossil site of Bukwa in northeastern
Uganda has resulted in new fossil finds, including fish, with representatives of two families,
Cichlidae and Alestidae. Although the two families were previously briefly reported from
Bukwa, we here give a more detailed account of the fishes based on newly collected material.
The cichlid material, mainly composed of vertebrae, can be tentatively assigned to one or more
species of Pseudocrenilabrinae. The alestid material, comprising a diversity of teeth, likely
represents several different species of Alestes, Brycinus and/or Bryconaethiops. Although the
ichthyofaunal diversity of Bukwa is low, the fishes are important to indicate the
paleoenvironment and hydrographic connections of Bukwa. The early Miocene was a critical
time for African faunas, as it was during this time that the Afro-Arabian and Eurasian plates
came into contact with one another, ending the long isolation of Africa, which, along with rifting
in East Africa, created new terrestrial and hydrological connections allowing faunal
interchanges. Bukwa is one of only a few African early Miocene localities known that sample
fish, and, based on these fish, probably represents an area of interconnected lakes and large rivers
including floodplains.
Description
Keywords
Alestidae, Cichlidae, freshwater, East Africa, Miocene
Citation
Murray, A. M., Argyriou, T., Cote, S., & MacLatchy, L. (2017). The fishes of Bukwa, Uganda, a lower Miocene (Burdigalian) locality of East Africa. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 37(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2017.1324460