Drifted Nautilus shells from the Bajuni Islands (southern Somali coast of Indian Ocean)

Abstract

Two drifted shells of Nautilus are described from the Bajuni Islands, southern Somali coast of Indian Ocean, being the first finds in Somalia and the first figured of the Eastern Africa. The  diverse early  taphonomic signatures on the  two shells are proxy of their diverse depositional history, a rapid crossing of the subtidal and intertidal environment before deposition on backshore  for one and a long-stay in  agitated shallow waters for  the other.  Conservation status of the shells and the finding of a fossil shell in the Pleistocene deposits of the islands, the second find in the whole Pliocene-Pleistocene of the world, could are proxy, but need of more findings, of a presence of a living community in the West Indian Province since the Pleistocene.