干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

New finds of ichnofossils from the Cambrian Araba Formation are described from the Eastern Desert and Sinai Peninsula (northeastern Egypt), and recent knowledge on Cambrian ichnofossils from these regions is summarized. Five ichno-assemblages from Sinai Peninsula and two from the Eastern Desert represent ichnocoenoses of low diversity, dominated by arthropod and vermiform traces. The assemblages are attributed to the Cruziana and Skolithos ichnofacies realms of a tidally influenced, marginal marine to probably freshwater affected depositional area. Based on the occurrence of Cruziana salomonis (Seilacher, 1990) and Rusophycus burjensis HOFMANN, MANGANO, ELICKI & SHINAQ, 2012, an early Middle Cambrian age (basal stage 5 of series 3) can be deduced. The Cambrian ichnofauna of northeastern Egypt points to close palaeogeographic affinity with the Jordan Rift Valley (southern Dead Sea and northern Wadi Araba). In contrast to this latter area, the sedimentological character of the northeastern Egyptian Cambrian succession indicates a somewhat more proximal position on the northern Gondwana shelf relative to that interpreted from depositional conditions documented for the Jordanian Cambrian in the central to southern Wadi Araba.