Cairo -

The Geological Museum in Egypt reveals the mysteries and secrets of the history of fossils in Egypt, which has long been talking about amazing discoveries that stir controversy and passion within the scientific community and among those interested in biology in Egypt and the world.

Egypt was a bustling home teeming with life millions of years ago for extinct living creatures such as dinosaurs whose presence is evident from the remains and fossils from time to time during various exploratory missions.

Bilal Salem, discoverer of the newly discovered skeleton of the dinosaur Abel in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt (communication sites)

The story of the dinosaur Abel

A researcher at the Mansoura Center for Vertebrate Excavations of Mansoura University, Bilal Salam, reached on the ninth of this June, in cooperation with researchers from the Environmental Affairs Agency and the Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Excavations;

To the discovery of the cervical vertebra of a dinosaur of a family called Abelisauridae, known as "Abelisauridae".

This dinosaur is very similar to the dinosaur "T-Rex", the fiercest carnivorous organisms, which lived in the Bahariya Oasis area in the Western Desert of Egypt, and its age is estimated to be about 98 million years.

Dinosaurs and Ancient Egypt

There is a relationship between the geographical location of Egypt and the presence of dinosaurs in it millions of years ago. There have always been areas that form the foci of scientific missions from Egypt and abroad seeking to uncover the mystery of the history of extinct organisms;

Which you see clearly when you visit the Geological Museum, which was established in 1901.

Of course, the skeletons and bones of the large Paralitan dinosaur, one of the herbivorous dinosaurs, who lived in the late Cretaceous period in the Bahariya oases about 95 million years ago, will grab your attention. 150 million years.

And it's not just dinosaurs;

The museum contains fossils of other extinct mammals, such as the skull of the Basilosaurus Isis whale, a fossil from Wadi al-Hitan. The age of this whale dates back to the middle Eocene era, from 37 to 42 million years ago, according to scientists' estimates.

The skeleton of the Fayoum elephant, which is believed to have lived in Fayoum for millions of years (Al-Jazeera)

Geographical scope of the discoveries

Some may see that the coexistence of living creatures such as dinosaurs or whales in a resource-poor and non-viable area such as the Western Sahara is a fantasy, given that it is surrounded by a vast land that has nothing but rocks and sand.

However, these sands and rocks were and still reveal their secrets to the exploratory missions that have been trying to uncover the mysteries of those areas for many years.

There is a relationship between the geographical location of Egypt and the presence of dinosaurs in it millions of years ago. There have always been areas that form the foci of scientific missions from Egypt and abroad that seek to unravel the mystery of the history of ancient dinosaurs and whales.

Among those important outposts is the Western Desert of Egypt, in which the Bahariya Oasis area of ​​Giza governorate is located, which is located on a depression of about 2,000 km in the heart of the Western Desert, passing through the Wadi al-Hitan area of ​​Fayoum governorate, which is also within the geographical scope of the Western Desert and covers an area of ​​1,759 km.

History of dinosaur excavation

This leads us to talk about the history of dinosaur expeditions in Egypt, how and when they began.

During his third expedition in Egypt in 1911, the German paleontologist Ernst Ström - known as the "Father of Egyptian Paleontology" - with his assistant Richard Markgraf discovered in the oasis area more than 4 semi-integrated structures of dinosaurs.

The structures belong to the dinosaur Spinosaurus, which measured between 50 and 57 feet in length.

Carcharodontosaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur, had shark-like teeth.

and the Bahariasaur dinosaur, which is expected to have lived in the Cretaceous period 95 million years ago.

And the dinosaur Aegyptosaurus, or the ancient Egyptian lizard, that lived in Africa at the same age.

However, after Strom transferred these fossils to the Munich Museum of Paleontology, they were completely destroyed due to the bombing of the museum by the British Air Force during World War II, according to the various scientific periodicals.

After that, discoveries followed, including the discovery of the Egyptian paleontologist Hisham Salam with a research team from the Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Fossils, in January 2018.

In the Bahariya Oasis region, specifically in the Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert, the team discovered a dinosaur called Mansourasaurus, as an expressive name for the Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Fossils, which was credited with discovering it, and it belongs to the long-necked plant dinosaurs that were common during the Cretaceous period, called The Titanurosauria family.

The skull of a primitive whale believed to have lived at the bottom of Wadi Al-Hitan 28 million years ago (Al-Jazeera)

Wadi Al-Hitan Reserve

With the successive discoveries, the scientists made sure that the Whale Valley in the Western Desert is an area rich in fossils of extinct marine creatures, because they believed that the valley was part of the bottom of the Teths Sea, a large sea of ​​which the Mediterranean was part.

Therefore, the United Nations UNESCO chose the area as the best world heritage area for whale skeletons in 2005.

The Wadi Al-Hitan region is an open geological museum, where its sand includes fossils of various whales, including the Basilosaurus Isis whale, which was 18 meters long. From here, the area was called Wadi al-Hitan, after the discoveries of whales there.

Fossil structures of animals that lived in Egypt millions of years ago in the Geological Museum (Al-Jazeera)

What is the importance of discovering fossils in Egypt?

Dr. Hisham Salam, Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American University in Cairo and founder of the Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Fossils, who oversaw the latest discovery of the dinosaur "Abel", which bears the name of its discoverer, the scientist Roberto Abel;

The importance of discovering dinosaurs or fossils in Egypt is to discover the geological history and to know the mystery of the giant living creatures that lived on planet Earth.

Salam pointed out - in press statements - the importance of preserving and recording Egyptian fossils to be a witness to the life of these creatures in Egypt, especially after several fossils came out of Egypt and did not return again, as happened with 4 fossils discovered by German paleontologist Arsent Ström, which were completely destroyed after their transfer. to outside the country.