Jeddah: Fossils of rare sea creatures have been found that were extinct centuries ago. The discovery was made during the exploration and study of ancient fossils under the Saudi Geological Survey. Some fossils are reported to be 80 million to 1.6 million years old.
The fossils were discovered during the exploration conducted by the Saudi Geological Survey team on the Red Sea coast between the governorates of Dubai and Umlaj since February this year. These are the places that are going to be developed as tourist destinations in the future as part of the Red Sea development projects. As fossil sites have been found in these areas, the exploration team has concluded that there will be more fossils.
The team’s study also found that the Red Sea and Amala project areas contain fossils of different types of marine vertebrates and remains of plants that lived in shallow and coastal marine environments. Some of the fossils found are of marine reptiles buried in the sediments. When the ‘Tethys Sea’ covered most of the Arabian Peninsula, parts of the sea turtles and crocodiles that lived on the coasts have also been found.
There are also shark teeth, crocodile vertebrae and parts of turtle skeletons. The fossil exploration team of the Saudi Geological Survey is continuing its research activities in different regions of the country to explore more fossils that have become extinct since ancient times and to know the environments in which they lived.
