Versteinerte Pflanzen
Egypt, Western Desert, New Valley, Kharga Depression
Abstract
This article describes occurences of fossil wood in a wide plain of about 1.500 km2 (30 km x 50 km) at the western margin of the Kharga Depression in the Western Desert/Central Egypt. Silicified wood occure in lower cretaceous, white, light grey, yellowbrown to brown, cross-bedded, moderately hard clay- and siltstones. The supposed age of the fossil-bearing strata is Upper Albian to Lower Cenomanian (Sabaya Formation). Numberless, silicified trunks were found in ±horizontally position on the desert-surface more or less buried in sandy gravel. Larger (15 - 20 m) trunks are broken into 30 cm to 70 cm long segments with diameter of 10 cm to 30 cm. Complete trunks are up to 7 m in lenght with at most 70 cm in diameter. Trunk bases are very rarely to see. Feeding or boring tunnels are typical for the fossil wood of the area. All plant remains are gymnosperm wood. During the lower to middle Cretaceous this area was a part of a supposed floodplain of a river system. A generally orientation of larger trunks in an East-West-direction indicates transport of the former tree-trunks by running water.