Egypt’s Desert Was Once a Shark-Filled Tropical Sea
Get your microscopic glasses and digging tools. Scientists have uncovered new evidence from an ancient shark graveyard in southwestern Egypt — and the desert under our feet suddenly looks a whole lot wetter.
A new study of phosphate beds in the Duwi Formation at the Abu-Tartur Plateau describes 14 fossilized shark teeth representing at least five extinct species. And no, despite the original headline floating around our newsroom, these are not dinosaur species. They are sharks. Very old, very extinct sharks.
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WHEN EGYPT HAD SHARKS
More than 70 million years ago, part of today’s Western Desert sat beneath a warm tropical sea filled with sharks and other marine life.
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The fossils date to the Late Cretaceous, more than 70 million years ago, when much of northern Africa looked nothing like the dry landscape we know today. The phosphate-rich rocks at Abu-Tartur were deposited in a tropical marine environment, preserving evidence of a productive ancient sea.
The five sharks identified in the newly studied teeth are Cretalamna cf. maroccana, Scapanorhynchus cf. raphiodon, Serratolamna cf. serrata, Squalicorax bassanii and Squalicorax pristodontus.
Fourteen Teeth Just Expanded Egypt’s Prehistoric Shark Record
All five species are being reported from the Abu-Tartur area in this assemblage for the first time. Two — Serratolamna cf. serrata and Squalicorax bassanii — are also first records for Egypt, according to the researchers.
The most intriguing tooth belongs to Scapanorhynchus cf. raphiodon. The team says it may represent the first known occurrence of that form in Africa and potentially its youngest known appearance in the fossil record, although they stress that more specimens will be needed before that identification can be treated as definitive.
That little “cf.” in the species names is paleontology doing what paleontology should do: leaving room for uncertainty when a handful of fossil teeth can only tell you so much.
At Least Seven Shark Species Are Now Known From the Site
The 14 newly described teeth do not mean only five sharks lived here. Earlier research had already identified two additional species from the same Abu-Tartur region, bringing the known total to at least seven shark species.
The range of tooth shapes — from slender piercing forms to broader cutting teeth — suggests that these predators were not all chasing the same prey in exactly the same way. Instead, the site points toward a genuinely diverse marine ecosystem with multiple ecological niches.
Researchers link that richness to a nutrient-heavy shelf environment where ocean upwelling likely helped support abundant marine life. In other words: the stretch of desert now baking beneath the Egyptian sun once sat beneath a busy tropical sea with sharks cruising through it.
Which is a considerably better mental image than “five dinosaur species,” even if it does make standing alone in the desert feel slightly more ominous.
Watch More on Egypt’s Newly Reported Ancient Shark Graveyard
The supplied video accompanies coverage of the Late Cretaceous shark-fossil discovery at Egypt’s Abu-Tartur Plateau.
Source: Cretaceous Research and ScienceAlert.
