Archaeologists have discovered fossilized remains of dinosaurs in the Egyptian Western Desert, in a discovery that is the first of its kind in the region.

The dinosaurs, known as the Mansourasaurus shahinae, date back to the Cretaceous period, that is, they lived between 100 and 66 million years ago, according to archaeologists at Mansoura University.

The height of the discovered dinosaur is "the length of a school bus." He had a long neck and skeletons embedded in his skin, just about the weight of the elephant, and he is a giant titanosaurs, but a medium size.


The list of items extracted by the team included: two bones of the humerus, one finger of the hand, three toes of the foot, part of the skull, and part of the lower jaw, and paragraphs of the neck, and other paragraphs of the back and tail, and the bones of the radii and a few ribs. The team collected bones in 19 jackets, a group of gypsum-based preservatives designed to preserve and transport bones safely. After the filming of the site and bones, the team returned to the university, and used a foreign scientific team to make scientific discussions about the nature of the disclosure and type to come as a surprise; the bones found by the team belong to a completely new type of dinosaurs, as this dinosaur is not similar to him; after the scientists made a set of comparisons Among the dinosaurs discovered around the world in the same period, they noticed a variety of differences. Mansura Palace is characterized by a long chin that has been inferred along the length of the jaw bone. The number of teeth is very small compared to the species to which it belongs. The jaw has only 10 teeth. The differences noted by the scientific team are not limited to the number of teeth and jaw bone, but extend to the greatness of the "reedis", which has a larger bone end than usual. It has an angle of 20 degrees, a characteristic angle not found in other species.

The team began to conduct extensive studies on the newly discovered dinosaur and to search for a name for it. It eventually became known as Mansoura Palace after Mansoura University, which led the discovery and bore the bulk of the cost of funding the mission. .

According to Iman al-Daoudi, the Egyptian scientific team discovered the dinosaur and extracted it from the sand and photographed and cleaned bones, while the role of the foreign scientific team was limited to scientific reviews and analysis and writing results, and discussions on the type and sex of the dinosaur. «We have benefited from the vast experience of the American team expert in the field of dinosaurs», in the words of «Aldawdi», which confirms that the stage of scientific discussions is no less important than the stages of discovery and extraction. The Egyptian-American team found a link between Mansoura Palace and one of the European dinosaurs. The second surprise was that a link between the dinosaurs meant a relationship, and the possibility of a bridge between the African and European continents, linked them in those ancient .

Millions of years ago, Europe and Asia were in one mass, called Eurasia, while Africa and America were in one continent separated by a sea called Tethyes, the forefather of the sea, now known as the Mediterranean. Scientists There was no land link between the northern bloc of Asia, Europe and the southern bloc of which Africa is a part, but the dinosaur discovered by the Egyptian team may reveal a "land bridge" between Europe and Africa, through which the type of dinosaurs to divide their evolutionary path Two types are very similar to each other: Well in Europe and the second in Africa.

According to Dr. Iman al-Daoudi, the new discovery confirms the connection between Europe and Africa about 70 million years ago, noting that the point of contact is unknown until now, but may be detected in the near future: "This point may be related protrusions in the Mediterranean region , Whose beaches were reaching those days to the borders of the oases of Dakhla and Al-Kharja ».

"The beauty of the matter is that there is a distinct female participation in the discovery," says Dr. Hisham Salam, the principal researcher in the study, who points out that the female role in that discovery was really great. "Proud of their presence in the team, the first team of its kind in Africa and the Arab world Specialized specifically in the field of vertebral fossils specifically ».

The team encountered a number of difficulties, including financing. Exploration trips need a lot of money, and there is a big obstacle to the ignorance of communities and people in the process of collecting fossils. According to Iman al-Daoudi, residents of the area on one of the previous expeditions thought the team was excavating the ruins and destroying a unique set of samples after the team left. "After destroying these samples, we decided to set up the camps near the excavation sites in any future work, And we keep them until they are collected ».

Eman believes that solving this problem lies in spreading awareness about vertebrate fossils, which is a secondary side effect of their great discovery.

It was not the only problem, of course, according to Dr. Sana al-Sayyid, a 26-year-old woman who published 4 research papers in popular scientific journals. The women's team had a special problem of trying to convince parents to travel for about a month and camping in the desert "There were a number of objections from the parents, especially with regard to the safety of the trip, but we were able to convince them," says Sana, who says that finding the dinosaur was a "dream." The female team "never gave up its dream The objections were. "

According to Dr. Matt Lamna, a specialist in vertebrate fossils from the Carnegie Endowment for Natural Sciences, the new discovery is a "holy grail"; that dinosaur belongs to a "relatively recent" period, with no similarity in all of Africa, Will allow for a detailed study. Dr. Eric Gorskak, a paleontologist, said in a press release that the new discovery "is crucial to science in the field of African fossils in general and in Egypt in particular," stressing that Africa remains a giant question mark for the evolution of dinosaurs.

«What after discovery?»

Dr. Hisham Salam, the principal researcher in the study, said that he wished to continue exploring the desert for the detection of dinosaurs and to obtain the appropriate support, both financially and financially, from the concerned authorities. He also wished to reveal a dinosaur of the Egyptian type Spinosaur, Year in Western Sahara and North Africa.

Hisham aspires to be the nucleus of the Egyptian teams involved in the study of vertebrate fossils: «Abroad .. There is a kind of tourism based on those fossils».

The discoveries of this kind pave the way for the knowledge of our ancient past - in the words of Hisham Salam, who believes that the past is a relevant part of the present moment, and that his knowledge may mean predicting the future. When we know for example how dinosaurs disappeared we will try to avoid the factors that led to its extinction , And thus bring safety to mankind in the future; knowledge of the past is the best way to defend the future.