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21-million-year-old sea cow species discovered in Qatar’s ‘Dugong Cemetery’

Scientists have discovered the bones of a previously unknown sea cow species in the Qatarian desert's Al Maszhabiya region.

More than 170 fossil-rich spots were identified in the region

Imagine being on a sandy, vast stretch of nothingness, and you are welcomed by hundreds of bones scattered across the sand. This is precisely what a group of geologists, surveying the Al Maszhabiya region, in a desert of southwestern Qatar, some 50 years ago, witnessed. At the time, they assumed that it was yet another dessert fossil discovery of ancient reptiles.

Years later, in the early 2000s, a new group of scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and Qatar Museums decided to re-examine the region and the bones to resolve this mystery fully. “The area was called ‘dugong cemetery’ among the members of our authority,” recalls Ferhan Sakal, an archaeologist and head of excavation and site management at Qatar Museums. “But at the time, we had no idea just how rich and vast the bonebed actually was.”

In Frame: Fossilised dugong bones in sabkha in southwest Qatar (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

This new examination revealed that this vast site is actually a 21-million-year-old bonebed, filled with the remains of sea cows, sharks, barracuda-like fish, prehistoric dolphins, and sea turtles. More than 170 fossil-rich spots were identified, making it one of the richest marine fossil deposits in the world. Some experts even compared it to Chile’s famous Whale Hill, where dozens of whale skeletons were found.

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Recently, a new finding from the region, published in the journal PeerJ., has surfaced. A new species of sea cow, named Salwasiren qatarensis, has been discovered. It is named after Qatar. The animal looks a lot like the dugongs, which still live just 10 miles away today. There are a few differences, though: this sea cow was smaller, had a straighter snout, shorter tusks, and still had hind-limb bones, which modern sea cows have lost over millions of years.

The mix of fossils found at Al Maszhabiya indicates that this desert was once a shallow sea teeming with life. The rocks preserve a long history of environmental change over millions of years — information that scientists believe can help predict how today’s marine ecosystems may respond to warming waters, rising salinity, and pollution.

Today, the Arabian Gulf hosts the world’s largest herd of dugongs, but their future is uncertain because their seagrass habitats are under threat. Researchers think ancient Salwasiren played the same role in the ecosystem that dugongs play now — grazing on seagrass and helping keep the marine environment healthy.

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