The first dinosaurs discovered in Saudi Arabia

"The reason why dinosaur remains from the Arabian Peninsula and the areas east of the Mediterranean Sea are rare is because rocks that sank in streams and rivers during the time of the dinosaurs were rare, especially in Saudi Arabia itself where most of it was below sea level," said Dr. Thom Rich from the Victoria Museum in Australia.

An international team of scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden, Museum Victoria in Australia, Monash University in Australia and members of the Geological Survey of Saudi Arabia, discovered dinosaur fossils for the first time in Saudi Arabia. This is a sensational discovery since dinosaur fossils are rare in the Arabian Peninsula. The research findings were published in the journal Plos One in a joint study by scientists from Sweden, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

The desert area of ​​Saudi Arabia was once a beach strewn with the bones and teeth of ancient marine lizards and dinosaurs.

The first officially identified dinosaur fossils were discovered during excavations carried out by a team of scientists under the supervision of the Saudi Survey in Jeddah. The excavations were carried out in the northwestern region of the kingdom, on the coast of the Red Sea. Among other things, several vertebrae from the tail of a brontosaurus-like sauropod as well as teeth of a carnivorous theropod were discovered.

The lead researcher on the study, Dr. Benjamin Kiar of Uppsala University, notes that dinosaur fossils are particularly rare in the Arabian Peninsula, and that only a few scattered fragments of bones have been recorded so far. He further adds that "this discovery is important not only because of the nature of the remains found but also because of the fact that they can be identified. Indeed, these are the first dinosaur remains to be taxonomically identified in the Arabian Peninsula."
Dr. Tom Rich from the Victoria Museum in Australia elaborates on the reason for the rarity of dinosaur fossils in the Arabian Peninsula and other areas east of the Mediterranean Sea. According to him, the reason lies in the rocks that sank in the streams and rivers during the time of the dinosaurs. When the dinosaurs lived, most of the Saudi Peninsula was under water and formed the northeastern border line of the African continent.

Dr. Rich adds that "the most difficult fossil to obtain is the first fossil. When the researchers know that they are in an area where fossils were discovered and what the circumstances are for the discovery, it is easier to find more similar finds."

In the study of the fossils in Saudi Arabia, teeth and bones of approximately 72 million years old were discovered. Two types of dinosaurs were recorded after the bones were put together: one was a meat eater and walked on two, a distant relative of the tyrannosaurs but smaller and only six meters tall. The other is a plant-eating titanosaur about twenty meters long. Similar dinosaurs were discovered in North Africa, Madagascar and even further away - in South America.

Dinosaur footprints were discovered in Israel in 1962 in the settlement of Beit Zeit in the Judean Mountains. This is most likely the result of a Strotiomimus type dinosaur.

For the announcement on the Uppsala University website