Discovery of a dinosaur fossils in Egyptian oases
An Egyptian research team succeeded in discovering the first dinosaur in Egypt and Africa dating back to the Cretaceous period, revealing a mystery of nearly 30 million years that marked the end of the Cretaceous.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the dinosaur found in the Tnideh area of the oasis of Dakhla in the western desert of Egypt was dubbed "Mansoura Palace".
The discovery carries the scientific number MUVP-200, the abbreviation for the name of the Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Research in English, to which the research team belongs.
"Mansura Palace" solves the mystery
"The dinosaur is the first of its kind in Africa and documents the last 30 million years of the Cretaceous era," said Hisham Salam, an assistant professor in the Department of Geology at Mansoura University and head of the research team for the BBC.
Salam pointed out that Mansoura Palace is the sixth dinosaur to be discovered in Egypt, but it is the first in Egypt and Africa to document the end of the Cretaceous era.
Mansurahoras is 10 meters long and weighs five tons and is about 75 million years old. According to Salam, the weight of the dinosaur is low compared to the giant dinosaurs of the same species, weighing up to 70 tons, which is explained by the suffering of dinosaurs in this period Of stunted disease.
The documentation of this period of time in Africa has been difficult for science. It has been documented by the discovery of dinosaur fossils in Europe, South and North America, Asia and the island of Madagascar, until the Mansoura Palace was found
The discovered dinosaur became the first scientific evidence to prove that the continents of Africa and Europe were one entity before they were divided.
Studies show that dinosaurs dispersed and spread between Eurasia and North Africa after Africa split from South America 100 million years ago.
Salam revealed that the discovery of Mansoura Palace required camping in the desert for weeks under harsh conditions. It also required the formation of a team of the largest number of researchers for the first time in history in Egypt and the Arab world.
Mansoura Pictures is the only and complete
Mansoura Palace, unlike the rest of the five dinosaurs discovered in Egypt, is a new species, and its geologic age is newer and more sophisticated.
Mohamed Sameh, director of the Department of Geology and Excavations in the Nature Protection Sector and the National Focal Point for UNESCO World Heritage Sites, described Mansurahas as the only and most complete of its time in Africa.
The importance of the discovery, according to Mohammed Sameh, in his remarks to Scientific America, is due to three reasons: it gives an answer to a 30-million-year period of the Cretaceous period, and provides evidence of the migration of organisms from Europe to Africa and vice versa. Discovery attributed to an Egyptian Arab team.
Suffering to find "Mansoura Palace"
Iman Iman al-Daoudi, a master's student in the Department of Geology at the Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, says the team has been working on the discovery of dinosaur remains in Western Sahara since 2008.
Al-Dawawi explained to "Scientific America" that "Mansoura Palace" was found after a long journey of searching between layers of rocks that retain the remains of those organisms in the desert.
The team took three weeks of continuous work at the site of the discovery, to extract the skeleton and treat it with a type of glue, which helps to extract the fossil in the fullest image.
Al-Daoudi thanked the other members of the team which included Hisham Salam, Mahmoud Qora, Professor of Excavations and Classes, Sanaa El Sayed Assistant Lecturer, Department of Geology, and Sara Saber, Assistant Lecturer, Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University
