Haytham El Atfy

University of Münster | WWU · Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Palaeobotany Group

Afropollis is a common element in Cretaceous low-latitude palynofloras ranging from the Barremian to the Cenomanian. Despite an abundant fossil record, its affinities are still elusive. Nine Afropollis-rich subsurface samples from the Cenomanian Bahariya Formation in the northern part of the Western Desert of Egypt were palynologically analysed, an...

Palynological studies from Europe and North America have repeatedly considered the Carboniferous miospore genus Vestispora a useful biostratigraphic indicator, resulting in a detailed review and discussion of its variable morphotypes. This was not the case in Gondwana, where Vestispora has rarely been reported. However, a few studies from India...

Abstract The acritarch genus Cyclopsiella is extant and ranges back to the Middle Jurassic. This genus cannot be assigned to any of the established acritarch subgroups and has a relatively simple morphology, and species are often referred to using open nomenclature. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of Cyclopsiella and its different morp...

This contribution marks the achievements made in the past decades by a group of palynologists. The data generated covers a long-time span from the Precambrian to the Holocene of Egypt. Previously published results are devoted primarily to the study of many exploration wells and outcrop sections. Comprehensive studies were carried out on a range of...

Micropaleontology can give important insights into the provenance and paleoenvironmental conditions in terrestrial sedimentary archives. For the current study, 84 samples representing a 2.6 km thick sedimentary profile from the SimplyFolded Zagros Mountain Belt were investigated. They span ca. 10.2 my from the late Middle Miocene (Serravallian) to...

The Palaeogene is a very important time period for mammalian evolution because it documents the first occurrence of many groups. One such group is the enigmatic Ptolemaiida, best known from the Early Oligocene of the Fayum Depression in Egypt, where it is represented by three genera, Ptolemaia, Qarunavus, and Cleopatrodon, including five species. A...

The Lower Cretaceous Yamama Formation is well-known as one of the main carbonate oil reservoirs for many of the southern Iraq oilfields. However, its depositional environment has so far been poorly described using palynological techniques. Palynological assemblages from the Lower Cretaceous Yamama Formation in southern Iraq contain variable proport...

In the course of a pilot study on the palynology of the late Paleocene (Thanetian) maar deposits of Menat (Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France), selected palynomorphs were analysed with the single grain technique. This technique allows for a consecutive analysis of individual grains by means of light microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The...

The Phanerozoic Geology and Natural Resources of Egypt includes a series of chapters written by highly qualified group of researchers whose expertise is recognized and appreciated not only in Egypt, but also in the world over. The chapters span a wide range of geological subdisciplines including tectonics, paleogeography, stratigraphy, sedimentolog...

In this chapter, we present the story of the Oligocene palynostratigraphy and floral composition in Egypt as told by the preserved palynomorphs in the Dabaa Formation. It is a step in establishing a regional biostratigraphic and vegetational framework for the Oligocene, thus making future integration of regional and global schemes possible, especia...

This work summarizes the results of previous investigations on the plant fossil remains since the last century within the Egyptian strata, exclusively from the Cretaceous. Most of these data are often dispersed across many poorly accessible sources or not written in English. Cretaceous floras of Egypt are known from different localities mainly in t...

Based on numerous findings of fossil charcoal worldwide, the Cretaceous is considered a high-fire period in Earth’s history. Macro-charcoal, as direct evidence for the occurrence of palaeo-wildfires during deposition of Cretaceous strata, has so far been reported from three different localities in Egypt: (1) the pre-Aptian Malha Formation of Wadi B...

This chapter evaluates the integration between optical and geochemical methods as one of the best ways to screen hydrocarbon source rock potential and its diagnostic impact on kerogen investigation, in addition to its consistent involvement in paleoenvironmental inferences. While those kerogen types are usually resulting from Rock-Eval data, palyno...

A geological overview on the East Mediterranean realm, featuring the tectono-stratigraphic evolution and associated depositional environments as well as the known petroleum systems, is provided in this contribution. The Levant Basin, the (northern) Western Desert, and the Nile Delta are the main focus of this review because they include significant...

The Cenomanian Bahariya Formation, which represents a unique stratigraphic window in Egypt, has been investigated for its plant macrofossil content. Despite being historically known for its yields of a diverse assemblage of plant lineages, this flora still needs careful investigation and reinterpretation in terms of climate and paleobiogeographic a...

Modern tropical rainforests (TRFs) are one of the most ecologically important and species-rich biomes on the planet. However, the origin of modern TRFs is still debated, especially due to the incongruence between the fossil record and molecular data. Here, we test whether Campanian assemblages from northeastern Africa could represent fossil TRF veg...

Changes in terrestrial vegetation during the mid-Cretaceous and their link to climate and environmental change are poorly understood. In this study, we use plant macrofossils and analysis of fossil pollen and spores from the Western Desert, Egypt, to assess temporal changes in plant communities during the Cenomanian. The investigated strata have re...

The southern Qiangtang Basin located in the central Tibetan Plateau of the eastern Tethys is among the most significant petroliferous provinces in China. In this chapter, lower Toarcian sediments represented by thick oil shale succession from the Bilong co area, were studied. Geochemical screening, organic petrographic, and palynological analyses w...

Accurate source rock characterizations via geochemical and optical methods require advanced knowledge of the processes of their formation and the factors that control their development. The current chapter starts by addressing the fundamentals of sedimentary organic matter’s origin and chemical compositions and how they interact with the atmosphere...

The progressive increase in the demand for unconventional resource assessments such as gas and oil shale, as well as shale gas and oil plays in the last two decades, boosted the development of source rock characterization methods and techniques. Additionally, it advanced more research in geochemistry, palynology, and organic microscopy. The interpr...

Modern tropical rain forests (TRF) are one of the most ecologically important and species-rich biomes on the planet. However, the origin of modern TRF is still debated, especially due to the incongruence between the fossil record and molecular data. Here, we are testing whether Campanian assemblages from northeastern Africa could represent fossil T...

Late Triassic plant macro-remains are extremely rare in an equatorial belt stretching across the North of Gondwana from northern South America to Arabia. Located between the Laurussian floral province to the North and the Gondwana floral province to the South, this large area, is almost entirely lacking palaeobotanical data. Thus, this region is of...

Fossil evidence for wildfires, in form of fossil charcoal, is known from a large number of Cretaceous localities worldwide and it has repeatedly been argued that wildfires were connected to the evolution and radiation of angiosperms during this period. The present study provides new evidence (in form of macro-charcoal) for the occurrence of wildfires...

Download a free copy using this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SC2RXGHW88QRFGJVE9AB/full?target=10.1080/01916122.2021.2023057 Abstract A palynological investigation was carried out on 24 samples from the Oligocene Dabaa Formation, which cuts across the Amana-1X well, located in the Abu El Gharadig Basin, north Western Desert, Egypt. Paly...

A new florula, dominated by angiosperm leaves, is reported from the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian?) Malihah Formation of Saudi Arabia. The leaves are fragmentary preserved as impressions with a rust coloured, mineral coating, thus it is only possible to describe the best-preserved leaf forms as morphotaxa for the time being. Eight angiosperm and two g...

We present an updated time frame for the 30 m thick late Miocene sedimentary Trachilos section from the island of Crete that contains the potentially oldest hominin footprints. The section is characterized by normal magnetic polarity. New and published foraminifera biostratigraphy results suggest an age of the section within the Mediterranean biozo...

The evolution of the present-day African savannah fauna has been substantially influenced by the dispersal of Eurasian ancestors into Africa. The ancestors evolved endemically, together with the autochthonous taxa, into extant Afrotropical clades during the last 5 million years. However, it is unclear why Eurasian ancestors moved into Africa. Here...

The Eocene–Oligocene transition period was marked by one of the most abrupt and severe global environmental changes in the Cenozoic record, and this had a marked influence on the evolution of a number of animal and plant groups and entire ecosystems. This study documents continental palynomorphs recovered from the sedimentary rocks of the Dabaa For...

The Paleocene Fossil-Lagerstätte Menat in France is well known for its wealth of outstandingly well preserved fossil insects and plants. Despite being known for more than a century, the palaeoflora, which is regarded as typical for the late Thanetian by some authors, has largely been neglected since the 1940s. New excavations and surveys yielded ex...

Optical examination employing transmitted light and UV-fluorescence microscopy of palynological preparations of eighteen cutting samples representing the Alam El Bueib Member (Hautervian-Barremian), Kharita/lower Bahariya (Cenomanian), and Abu Roash (Turonian-Santonian) formations collected from the Faghur Hj5-1 well, north Western Desert, Egypt, a...

The study of the interaction of cicatricose spores related to the family Anemiaceae with other botanical groups in the palynological record contributes to a better understanding of the paleoecological, paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental aspects of this family through geological times. The present work based on the investigation of Anemiaceae foss...

The study of the interaction of cicatricose spores, related to the family Anemiaceae, with other botanical groups, in the palynological record, contributes to a better understanding of the paleoecological, paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental aspects of this family through geological times. The present work based on the investigation of Anemiaceae...

The taxon Paradoxopteris stromeri Hirmer, representing the rachis/petiole/stem of the fern Weichselia reticulata (Stokes et Webb) Fontaine, has a widespread occurrence in the Early–early Late Cretaceous of Northern Africa and the Near East, Europe, as well as South America. Here a new record of this taxon is presented from Cenomanian deposits at Ge...

The taxon Paradoxopteris stromeri Hirmer, representing the rachis/petiole/stem of the fern Weichselia reticulata (Stokes et Webb) Fontaine, has a widespread occurrence in the Early–early Late Cretaceous of Northern Africa and the Near East, Europe, as well as South America. Here a new record of this taxon is presented from Cenomanian deposits at Ge...

Palynological analyses of the Lower Cretaceous Alam El Bueib and Alamein members of the Burg El Arab Formation from the OBA. S-C and OBA. 3-1/1A wells, northern Western Desert, Egypt yielded 44 species of pteridophytic spores, 13 gymnosperm pollen, 9 angiosperm pollen, 24 dinoflagellate cysts, a diverse assemblage of foraminiferal test linings, fre...

The Upper Cretaceous (early Cenomanian) Bahariya Formation of Egypt has an outstanding reputation for its wealth of vertebrate remains, including a variety of iconic dinosaurs, like the carnivorous Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus, as well as the herbivorous Aegyptosaurus and Paralititan. Besides these dinosaur fossils, the Bahariya Formation yi...

The fossil record contains abundant evidence for the activity of microorganisms in the form of characteristic decay structures within fossil plant remains. Despite an abundance of charcoal in many sedimentary environments, there is little published evidence of such decay structures within charcoal from pre-Quaternary clastic deposits. The present c...

The Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous successions in the north Western Desert of Egypt are one of the most prolific hydrocarbon plays in North Africa. However, the source rock characteristics and depositional environments are still poorly understood. The current work assesses these sedimentary sections utilizing an integrated palynofacies and organic...

The palynological investigation of 30 outcrop samples from seven sites in and near the Qattara Depression, north Western Desert, Egypt, has yielded six samples from three sites containing poorly to well-preserved assemblages including dinoflagellate cysts, freshwater algae, acritarchs, pollen and spores. The sites have not been dated previously, bu...

The depositional environments and source rock potential of Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous and Middle Miocene to Pleistocene successions in onshore Nile Delta were determined in two onshore wells. The study used an integrated organic geochemistry and petrology as well as 1D basin modeling approach. The Abu Hammad-1 well, located in the southeastern Ni...

The Abu Gharadig Basin in the north Western Desert is one of the major producing petroleum basins in Egypt. The study aims to investigate the depositional environments and source rock potential of Cenomanian to Santonian sediments of Bahariya and Abu Roash formations from the GPT-3 well. The samples were analyzed for organic and inorganic carbon, s...

The Abu Gharadig Basin in the northern part of the Western Desert, Egypt is among the most important petroleum provinces in Egypt. Here, Cenomanian to Santonian rocks of Bahariya Formation and Abu Roash A-G members from the GPT-3 well were investigated for their depositional environment, kerogen quality, petroleum generation potential and thermal m...

Our comment is in keeping with our original approach which has been published by El Atfy et al. (2017), and is largely concerned with testing of Pediastrum as a key taxon in sequence stratigraphy and paleoecology of the Upper Cretaceous (mainly Turonian) successions based on subsurface material from the north Western Desert of Egypt. It was not an...

Palynomorph and palynofacies particles from 29 cutting samples from the Alam El Buieb Member of Burg El Arab Formation in the oba-sc well, north Western Desert, Egypt have been analyzed. Retrieved spores and pollen grains are affiliated to the pre-Albian Dicheiropollis/Afropollis phytogeographical province, which reflects drier and warmer climatic...

One hundred and thirty-six core and cuttings samples from Upper Cretaceous–Eocene deposits that are believed to include the most important source rocks in the Sirte Basin have been subjected to Rock-Eval pyrolysis, total organic carbon measurements, and palynofacies and microfacies analyses to determine palaeoenvironments and the thermal maturation...

The GH 404-2A Well, located in the southern Gulf of Suez, has been investigated palynologically from the Miocene Rudeis and Kareem formations of the Gharandal Group. Both formations produced diverse palynomorph assemblages comprising dinoflagellate cysts, spores and pollen, algae, fungal palynomorphs, scolecodonts and microforaminiferal linings. Fo...

Palynological investigations of samples collected from the Abu Roash Formation, Faghur Hj5-1 well, north Western Desert, Egypt show a low diversity in palynomorph assemblage. This assemblage is mainly dominated by a clear proliferation of Pediastrum (and other allied algal forms, e.g., Scenedesmus and Botryococcus) which today lives exclusively in...

Organic geochemical characterization of cutting samples from the Abu Hammad-1 and Matariya-1 wells elucidates the depositional environment and source rock potential of the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous successions and the Middle Miocene to Pleistocene section in the southern and eastern Nile Delta Basin. The burial and thermal histories of the Meso...

This paper reports the results of Rock‐Eval pyrolysis and total organic carbon analysis of 46 core and cuttings samples from Upper Cretaceous potential source rocks from wells in the West Sirte Basin (Libya), together with stable carbon isotope (δ ¹³ C) and biomarker analyses of eight oil samples from the Paleocene – Eocene Farrud/Facha Members and...

Although the fossil record of plant macro- and mesofossils, including fossil charcoal, is by its nature patchy in space and time, such remains play an important role for the interpretation of palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic developments in the continental realm. In Egypt, previous palynological studies on sediments from the Late Cretaceous s...

The present study of the Yamama, Ratawi, and Zubair formations refines our understanding of the subsurface Cretaceous of the southern Iraq. Our investigations are based on the palynological analyses of 15 core samples, the same suit of samples have been previously tested for organic geochemistry. Detailed organic geochemical and petrographic study...

A study on source rock characterization and paleoenvironmental interpretation has been carried out on a relatively thick Miocene sedimentary succession from three wells (GH 404-2A, GH 420-1, SA-E6A) in the southern Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The compilation of detailed optical investigations, including palynofacies analysis, spore coloration index (SCI),...

Palynological results of a detailed study carried out on 56 samples retrieved from two selected wells (GH 404-2A and SA-E6A) of the Hilal and Shoab Ali fields within the southern part of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt, are presented. This study is mainly focused on the poorly dated Nukhul Formation, for which very little information from palynology is ava...

Despite the abundance of Triassic outcrops in S Germany knowledge about continental ecosystems from the Norian is rather scarce so far for this region. A new fossil-bearing site from the Lower Löwenstein Formation (Unterer Stubensandstein; Norian) of north-eastern Baden-Württemberg (SW Germany), discovered in 2011, yielded disarticulated vertebrate...

The palynological contents as well as macroscopic charcoal fragments from a calcareous sandstone pebble from Quaternary glacial deposits of the North Sea (80 km SW of the Dogger Bank) are described. The taxonomic composition of the palynoflora points to a Late Jurassic (or Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous) age of the sandstone. The charcoal is interp...

Moderately to well-preserved palynomorph assemblages were recorded from thirty samples of the Nukhul Formation (GH 404-2A Well), southern Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The taxa are dominated by highly diverse fungi, freshwater algae (e.g. Botryococcus, Pediastrum) beside a sparse record of spores and pollen. Marine palynomorphs, such as dinoflagellate cysts...

Pflanzenfossilien spiegeln in idealer Weise die kontinentalen Umwelt- und Klimabedingungen in der erdgeschichtlichen Vergangenheit wider. In wissenschaftlichen Analysen liefern sie daher sehr oft die Primärdaten, mit denen Umwelt- und Klimabedingungen, wie etwa Jahresmitteltemperaturen und Jahresniederschlagssummen, aber auch die Zusammensetzung de...

Palynological investigation of the Cretaceous Abu Roash, Bahariya, Kharita, Alamein, Alam El Bueib and Betty formations, encountered in the Gebel Rissu-1 well, north Western Desert, Egypt yielded 27 species of pteridophytic spores, 24 of gymnosperm pollen, 25 of angiosperm pollen and 11 of dinoflagellate cysts in addition to some acritarchs, forami...

Palynological investigation of the Cretaceous Abu Roash, Bahariya, Kharita, Alamein, Alam El Bueib and Betty formations, encountered in the Gebel Rissu-1 well, north Western Desert, Egypt yielded 27 species of pteridophytic spores, 24 of gymnosperm pollen, 25 of angiosperm pollen and 11 of dinoflagellate cysts in addition to some acritarchs, foram...

Palynological investigations of the mid-Cretaceous, delta-influenced Malha Formation and superjacent transgressive Galala Formation exposed at Gebel El Minshera, north Sinai, Egypt, have yielded a sparse but biostratigraphically useful record of spores, pollen, and rare dinoflagellate cysts. A representative of the pollen genus Tricolporites, recov...

The present study of the Abu Roash and Bahariya formations in well GPTSW-7 refines our understanding of the subsurface Cretaceous of the north Western Desert of Egypt. Our investigations are based on the palynological analyses of 71 cuttings samples, of which 24 have also been analyzed for geochemistry, in addition to 3 sidewall cores analyzed for...