Fossil eggs from the lower Miocene Legetet formation of Koru, Kenya: Snail or lizard?

Abstract
In 1968 a partially eroded fossil achatinid gastropod, Limicolaria (?=Achatina), was found in a red paleosol horizon of the Lower Miocene Legetet Formation, near Koru, Kenya. This snail contains at least 23 spheroidal eggs, ranging in size from 7.0–7.5 x 8.7–9.0 mm. The eggs are well preserved and undistorted; the shell layer is replaced, and somewhat recrystallized, although the structure is, in most places, distinct. Although the eggs fill the cavity of Limicolaria (? = Achatina), which does lay, and can retain, rigid‐shelled eggs, the presence of a tightly interlocking columnar layer in the shell, as opposed to the granular middle layer of Limicolaria and Achatina, demonstrates that these are gekkonid lizard eggs. At least 12 gekkonine lizards, the only African lizards with a rigid‐shelled egg, used this shell as a nesting site. The only fossil gecko bones known from the African Early Miocene are also from one of the red paleosols of the Legetet Formation. This is the earliest record of a gekkonine in Africa.