RUI: Paleoautecology and Biofacies of North African Eocene Echinoidea

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The Eocene echinoid fauna of Africa is among the richest in the world with 145 nominal species of spatangoids from all Eocene stages. Preliminary analyses of spatangoid distributions in Egypt suggest that there existed in the Eocene geographic regions with distinct echinoid communities, and that these were a result of differences in sediment type in different regions. Burrowing echinoids, particularly spatangoids, have test features whose functional relationship with the sediment in which they live is well understood. I propose to analyze functional morphology of Egyptian and other African species to determine their substrate preferences. The proportions of species with specific sediment preferences in the fauna of each sampling locality will be plotted to see if any geographic distribution of sediment corresponds to the apparent faunal distinctiveness and rocks containing them will confirm inferences of sedimentary facies from echinoid morphology. Inferences about the causes for biogeographic distributions on a global scale require stratigraphically and ecologically well understood samples such as will be generated by this research.