Dinosaurs Of Egypt

[Riitta Palazzo]

Inone of the joint field trips between the Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Fossils and scientists from the Ministry of Environment in Al-Wahat region, the team found a fossil of a vertebra covered with solid deposits of iron and sand. By conducting the detailed anatomical study, which took several years after removing the sediments and restoring the fossil, it was found that it represents the tenth cervical vertebra of the neck of a huge carnivorous dinosaur.

According to the research team, fortunately, this type of vertebrae combines enough anatomical characteristics to show that it belongs to a member of a family of dinosaurs called Abelisauroids or Abel dinosaurs. The origin of the name "Abel" is attributed to Roberto Abel, the Argentine scientist, who discovered the first fossils of this family.

The research team explained that these dinosaurs are distinguished by their terrifying shape and frightening skull. They had sharp teeth similar to the blades of knives, and their hind feet show a huge muscle mass that helped them attack and prey. Although their front ends were short to the point of atrophy, these dinosaurs were among the fiercest of all.

It is also reported that the dinosaurs "Abel" were roaming the ancient southern continents (Gondwana) and Europe. The research team compared this vertebra with its counterparts from different continents, and her results of the genealogical tree showed there is a close relationship between the Egyptian Abel dinosaur and its peers from South America, even closer than the relationship with the dinosaurs of Madagascar and Europe. This supports the theory of Madagascar's separation from Africa before its separation from South America.

The study states that when explorers of the 20th century excavated the Bahariya Oasis, they were surprised by the large number of carnivorous dinosaur skeletons compared to the number of the herbivorous dinosaurs that inhabited the area. Scientists were able to discover fossils of almost complete skeletons of three meat-eating dinosaurs: Spinosaurus (the largest predatory dinosaur that lived on Earth), Carcharodontosaurus and Bahariasaurus, in addition to a herbivorous dinosaur, Aegyptosaurus.

Since then, even after the original fossils of those dinosaurs were destroyed in World War II, no dinosaurs were detected in this region, until an American team managed at the beginning of the current century to discover a giant, herbivorous dinosaur called Paralititan. The rest of the oasis land monsters of carnivorous dinosaurs remain buried in the rocks.

Hisham Salam, founder of the Center for Vertebrate Fossils at Mansoura University, head of the Egyptian team, and professor at the American University in Cairo, says that about 98 million years ago, Bahariya Oasis was not known by this name, but was known as the Dinosaur Oasis, which it literally was. According to Salam, the oasis teemed with life, and bloody conflicts that prevailed between different animals, especially dinosaurs.

Identified by a well-preserved neck vertebra, the new abelisaurid would have been roughly six metres long. Despite the single vertebra being found, it is virtually identical to vertebrae found from other abelisaurids, making it easy to identify the new creature as a member of the group.

Along with Spinosaurus, the 13 metre-long Carcharodontosaurus and the 11 metre-long Bahariasaurus, the new abelisaurid fossil adds yet another species to the cadre of large predatory dinosaurs that roamed what is now the Egyptian Sahara in the middle Cretaceous. The area was also home to giant crocodiles.

The researchers believe the new find has implications for the biodiversity of Cretaceous dinosaurs in Egypt and the entirety of northern Africa. It is the oldest known fossil of Abelisauridae from north-eastern Africa, and shows that, during the mid-Cretaceous, these carnivorous dinosaurs ranged across much of the northern part of the continent, east to west, from present day Egypt to Morocco, to as far south as Niger and potentially beyond.

The name Igai semkhu translates to "Forgotten Lord of the Oasis" in ancient Egyptian and can be represented in hieroglyphics. "It's named after a deity the Ancient Egyptians would have worshiped in the oasis it came from," study author Matthew Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, told Live Science.

"It's definitely something to get excited about," Lamanna said. "It is helping fill in this black hole in our understanding of the final 30 million years of the Age of Dinosaurs on one of the largest landmasses on Earth."

It turned out I. semkhu was a previously unknown genus and species of titanosaur, which is a subgroup of sauropods. Sauropods were plant-eating dinosaurs with small heads, long necks and big, elephant-like bodies.

But 75 million years ago, when Igai semkhu was likely to be alive, most sauropods were already extinct, leaving titanosaurs as the only existing sauropod lineage in the Cretaceous era (145 million to 66 million years ago).

Despite their name, titanosaurs weren't all titanic. "Titanosaurs range from some of the smallest sauropods ever found, about the size and weight of a cow, all the way up to the size of a humpback whale," said Lamanna. They were " the largest land animals to have ever existed."

Partly, that's because paleontologists haven't been digging in Africa for as long as they have in other places. In addition, while the continent harbors many Cretaceous-era rocks, very few are easily accessible. Many potential fossil sites are either covered by thick vegetation or deep desert sands.

"Igai is, although still fragmentary, complete relative to the rest of the record, and is therefore a pretty significant addition to our understanding," John Whitlock, professor of Anatomy at Mount Aloysius College in Pennsylvania, who was not involved with the study, told Live Science.

Cameron Duke is a contributing writer for Live Science who mainly covers life sciences. He also writes for New Scientist as well as MinuteEarth and Discovery's Curiosity Daily Podcast. He holds a master's degree in animal behavior from Western Carolina University and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Northern Colorado, teaching biology. "}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Cameron DukeSocial Links NavigationLive Science ContributorCameron Duke is a contributing writer for Live Science who mainly covers life sciences. He also writes for New Scientist as well as MinuteEarth and Discovery's Curiosity Daily Podcast. He holds a master's degree in animal behavior from Western Carolina University and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Northern Colorado, teaching biology.

Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach was born in Germany on June 12, 1870. In 1893, he began to study geology and paleontology at the University of Munich and wrote his thesis about the geology of the German colonies in Africa, under the direction of Karl Alfred von Zittel.

He later became a vertebrate paleontologist at the Palontologisches Museum in Munich and an expert on fossil fish and mammals. But I was not until 1901 that he travelled to Africa, more specifically to El Fayum, a fossiliferous location discovered by George August Schweinfurth, a German botanist. The place contains fossil mammals from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Supported by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften), he conducted a second expedition in 1902.

In 1910, E. Stromer went to his third paleontological expedition to Egypt. He arrived to Alexandria on November 7. He was initially looking for early mammals and planned visit the area of Bahariya, in the Western Desert, which has sediments from the Cretaceous era. But an expedition to the Western Desert needed the permission by the English and French colonial authorities and of course the Egyptian authorities. Although diplomatic relations with Germany were rapidly deteriorating , Stromer managed to get the permissions.

He arrived to the Bahariya Oasis on January 11, 1911. After facing some difficulties during the journey, on January 17 he began to explore the area of Gebel el Dist, and at the bottom of the Bahariya Depression, Stromer found the remains of four immense and entirely new dinosaurs ( Aegyptosaurus, Bahariasaurus, Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus aegyptiacus), along with dozens of other unique specimens.

With the help of Richard Markgraf (1856-1916), Stromer excavated in three years numerous remains of dinosaurs, snakes, turtles, marine reptiles and crocodiles. Unfortunately, due to political tensions before and after World War I, many of this fossils were damaged after being inspected by colonial authorities and not arrived to Munich until 1922. The shipping from El Cairo was paid by the Swiss paleontologist Bernhard Peyer (1885-1963), a former student and friend of Stromer.

During the World War II, Stromer tried to convince Karl Beurlen -a young nazi paleontologist who was in charge of the collection- that he had to move the fossils to a safer place, but he refused to do it. Finally, on April 24, 1944, a British Royal Air Force raid bombed the museum and incinerated its collections. Of course, that was not an isolated occurrence. Between 1940 and 1944, several dinosaur fossils were destroyed in World War II battles.

No? Well, the Institute for Creation Research continues to publish the graphic below suggesting that this is yet more evidence that dinosaurs and humans lived together. They just posted it again on Facebook which spurred me to comment.

This graphic is typically seen by a Facebook or ICR website audience in a smaller format and so the details of the animals are obscured. An audience shown this image likely will be drawn only to the neck and not have time to take note of the other features. My first image above shows greater detail and the ICR staff are clearly aware of the details of this image. I find it difficult to imagine they can honestly believe that these images where meant to depict dinosaurs interacting with humans in Egypt.

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