Conference proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Arab World Vertebrate Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, Cairo University, Egypte. Cairo University, Egypte, 4-5 Septembre 2019. Ghaba, Oman, an early Miocene fossil locality at the ocean- continent interface Martin Pickford1, Dominique Gommery2, Mohammed Al-Kindi3 1. CR2P/UMR 7207, MNHN-CNRS-SU, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CP 38, 8 rue Buffon, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France (e-mail martin.pickford@mnhn.fr). 2. CR2P/UMR 7207, CNRS-MNHN-SU, Sorbonne Université, Campus Pierre et Marie Curie, T.46-56, E.5, case 104, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France (e-mail dominique.gommery@sorbonne-universite.fr). 3. Earth Sciences Consultancy Centre, P.O. Box 979, P.C. 611, Muscat, Oman (e-mail malkindi@omanescc.com) The fossiliferous strata at Ghaba, Central Oman (21°13’55’’N : 57°34’10’’E - Altitude 82 m), comprise interfingering marine and terrestrial deposits. The marine faunal remains include a variety of marine gastropods and bivalves, dominated by oysters, and various sawfish, shark and ray teeth. The terrestrial remains are diverse, including freshwater fishes, frogs, turtles and crocodiles, associated with terrestrial tortoises, snakes and lizards, and a range of mammals, dominated by proboscideans (gomphotheres, zygolophodonts and deinotheres) accompanied by a tragulid, a small pecoran, a primitive giraffoid, an anthracothere, a rodent and a rhinocerotid. The Ghaba mammalian assemblage indicates a basal middle Miocene correlation, its affinities being closest to faunas from African localities such as Gebel Zelten, Libya, Wadi Moghara, Egypt, and Moruorot, Kenya (ca 16 Ma). The biogeographic affinities of the Ghaba mammals are strongly African, with three genera of proboscideans and ruminants that occur widely in the continent. Ghaba, which means forest in Arabic, is today a steppic environment, meriting the name Ghaba because the wadis in the region are rich in scattered Acacia and other trees. During the early Miocene, in contrast, the region was more heavily vegetated, being either dense woodland or forest, which could support three taxa of proboscideans, three of ruminants and one each of rhinocerotids and anthracotheres. The Ghaba deposits have great potential for yielding additional fossil material, and the position of the area at the « crossroads » of Africa, Europe and Asia, makes it of particular relevance to the study of intercontinental dispersals of terrestrial faunas at the end of the early Miocene.