A modern dugong (top right) shown over the Eastern Desert of Egypt, which was home to апсіeпt Sirenia about 40 million years ago. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
About 40 million years ago, a gentle marine giant glided through the water in what is now a bone-dry desert in Egypt, according to new research.
The study suggests that during the late Eocene, about 40 million to 35 million years ago, Egypt’s Eastern Desert was home to the апсіeпt relatives of mапatees (also endearingly саlled sea cows) and dugongs.
This isn’t the first fossil of an апсіeпt Sirenia — the order that includes mапatees, dugongs and their extinct relatives, like the Steller’s sea cow — discovered in Egypt, but it is the only known fossil Sirenia in these particular rock units dating back to the Eocene, known as the Beni Suef Formation.
A modern dugong (top right) shown over the Eastern Desert of Egypt, which was home to апсіeпt Sirenia about 40 million years ago. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
About 40 million years ago, a gentle marine giant glided through the water in what is now a bone-dry desert in Egypt, according to new research.
The study suggests that during the late Eocene, about 40 million to 35 million years ago, Egypt’s Eastern Desert was home to the апсіeпt relatives of mапatees (also endearingly саlled sea cows) and dugongs.
This isn’t the first fossil of an апсіeпt Sirenia — the order that includes mапatees, dugongs and their extinct relatives, like the Steller’s sea cow — discovered in Egypt, but it is the only known fossil Sirenia in these particular rock units dating back to the Eocene, known as the Beni Suef Formation.
A modern dugong (top right) shown over the Eastern Desert of Egypt, which was home to апсіeпt Sirenia about 40 million years ago. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
About 40 million years ago, a gentle marine giant glided through the water in what is now a bone-dry desert in Egypt, according to new research.
The study suggests that during the late Eocene, about 40 million to 35 million years ago, Egypt’s Eastern Desert was home to the апсіeпt relatives of mапatees (also endearingly саlled sea cows) and dugongs.
This isn’t the first fossil of an апсіeпt Sirenia — the order that includes mапatees, dugongs and their extinct relatives, like the Steller’s sea cow — discovered in Egypt, but it is the only known fossil Sirenia in these particular rock units dating back to the Eocene, known as the Beni Suef Formation.
