In a recent discovery, scientists have discovered tiny 21 million-year-old sea cow fossils in Qatar, dating back to the early Miocene.
The researchers, in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Qatar Museums, attributed the fossils to a previously unknown species of ancient sea cow named Salwasiren qatarensis.
Salwasiren qatarensis was relatively small and weighed about 250 pounds, almost eight times smaller than modern dugongs.
According to evidence, the ancestors of sea cows have depended on aquatic plants for 50 million years.
According to Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals and lead author of the study, “We discovered a distant relative of dugongs in rocks less than 10 miles from a bay with seagrass beds that are their main habitat today. »
“This part of the world has been the primary habitat of sea cows for 21 million years. It’s just that the role of sea cows has been occupied by different species over time,” he added.
These results published in the journal PeerJare important because modern dugongs in the Persian Gulf face potential threats from incidental fishing, rising temperatures, coastal development and increased salinity, thereby straining the seagrass beds on which the dugongs depend.
“If we can learn from past records how seagrass communities survived climate stress or other major disturbances such as sea level changes and salinity changes, we could set goals for a better future for the Arabian Gulf,” Pyenson said.
Faisal Al Naimi, co-author of the study, said: “Dugongs are an integral part of our heritage, not only as a living presence in our waters today, but also in the archaeological record that connects us to past generations. »
