A barren stretch of Egypt’s Western Desert has yielded an surprising glimpse right into a prehistoric ocean, with scientists uncovering fossilised shark tooth belonging to 5 extinct species that lived through the Late Cretaceous, when dinosaurs nonetheless dominated the planet. The invention comes from the Abu-Tartur Plateau in southwestern Egypt, an space that as we speak is a particularly arid panorama however was as soon as lined by a heat tropical sea. The research ‘Egyptian shark graveyard: New Late Cretaceous Lamniform shark assemblage from Duwi Formation of Abu-Tartur Area, Southwestern Desert, Egypt,’ printed in 2026 in Cretaceous Analysis, describes a brand new assemblage of Late Cretaceous lamniform sharks from the phosphate-rich Duwi Formation. The analysis was led by Tarek Yassin of Cairo College, along with Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño, René Kindlimann, Alhussein Ibrahim and Mohamed Okay. AbdelGawad. In response to the researchers, the fossils present new proof of shark variety within the historical tropical seas of North Africa.
5 extinct shark species emerge from Egypt’s historical shark graveyard
The fossil discovery was made within the Maghrabi-Liffiya sector of the Abu-Tartur Plateau, throughout the Duwi Formation. The geological formation dates to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, roughly 83.6 to 72.1 million years in the past. That was a dramatically completely different Egypt from the one seen as we speak. Through the Late Cretaceous, world temperatures had been significantly hotter and sea ranges had been greater. Components of what’s now North Africa had been submerged beneath shallow or tropical marine environments. The Duwi Formation preserves proof of this historical setting within the type of intensive phosphate deposits and fossilised marine animals. The researchers describe the phosphate beds as having shaped in a tropical marine surroundings, creating an unusually beneficial geological report of the creatures that inhabited these waters. The shark stays had been significantly necessary as a result of they increase the identified report of lamniform sharks from Egypt and supply clues in regards to the variety of predators that occupied these historical seas.
Fourteen fossil tooth reveal 5 extinct shark species
Quite than discovering full shark skeletons, the researchers recovered 14 remoted lamniform tooth from phosphate beds within the Maghrabi-Liffiya part. Shark tooth are among the many mostly preserved elements of historical sharks as a result of sharks repeatedly shed and change their tooth all through their lives. Regardless of the small variety of specimens, the tooth displayed sufficient distinctive traits for the researchers to establish 5 shark species:
- Cretalamna cf. C. maroccana
- Scapanorhynchus cf. S. raphiodon
- Serratolamna cf. S. serrata
- Squalicorax bassanii
- Squalicorax pristodontus
All 5 are extinct lamniform sharks. Their completely different tooth shapes point out that the traditional shark neighborhood was not made up of an identical predators competing for exactly the identical assets. Some tooth had been slender and sharply pointed, whereas others had been broader and serrated. Such variations can present clues about feeding methods and the sorts of prey completely different sharks had been tailored to sort out. The researchers emphasise that every one 5 species are being reported from the Abu-Tartur space for the primary time. Much more considerably, Serratolamna cf. S. serrata and Squalicorax bassanii characterize first data for Egypt.
Fourteen fossil tooth reveal 5 extinct shark species (Picture: Yassin et al., Cretac. Res., 2026)
A potential first African report makes one shark particularly vital
One of the intriguing findings includes Scapanorhynchus cf. S. raphiodon. The researchers say the specimens might characterize the primary prevalence of this taxon in Africa. In addition they counsel that the fossils may characterize its stratigraphically youngest identified prevalence, though they stress that further specimens and future taxonomic work shall be wanted earlier than that interpretation could be confirmed with higher confidence. That uncertainty is necessary. The fossils had been recognized primarily based totally on remoted tooth, and distinguishing carefully associated extinct sharks from dental stays could be difficult. The researchers due to this fact use “cf.” in some species names to point that the specimens are comparable with the named species however that the identification just isn’t thought of fully definitive. Even with that qualification, the invention considerably expands the identified geographical report of those prehistoric sharks.
The shark graveyard exhibits how completely different historical Egypt seemed
The fossils are a reminder that Egypt’s present-day deserts conceal an intensive report of vanished marine environments. The Abu-Tartur Plateau is now an unlimited expanse of dry land, however the rocks beneath its floor protect proof of a interval when marine animals lived within the area. The newly described shark assemblage provides to a rising assortment of Late Cretaceous marine fossils from Egypt, together with fish, reptiles and different vertebrates. The researchers notice that the Duwi Formation marks the onset of totally marine situations on this a part of Egypt, related to a significant marine transgression. The shark tooth due to this fact present greater than a listing of extinct species: they assist reconstruct the ecological and chronological historical past of the traditional North African sea. The phosphate beds additionally assist clarify why such delicate proof survived. The fossils had been recovered from phosphate layers, the place chemical and geological processes helped protect the stays. The color of the shark tooth varies from black and gray to yellow relying on the phosphate layer and subsequent weathering processes described by the researchers.
Why the invention issues for prehistoric shark analysis
The importance of the Egyptian discovery extends past the 5 species themselves. Sharks have existed for tons of of hundreds of thousands of years, however their fossil report is usually dominated by remoted tooth moderately than full skeletons. Each new fossil-bearing locality can due to this fact add one other piece to the image of the place completely different shark teams lived, how widespread they had been and the way marine ecosystems modified by way of geological time. The Abu-Tartur assemblage additionally strengthens proof that Late Cretaceous North Africa supported a surprisingly various shark neighborhood. The presence of a number of lamniform species in a single phosphate-bearing marine sequence means that these predators had been a part of a fancy ecosystem moderately than remoted inhabitants of historical Egyptian waters. The researchers conclude that the fossils shed new gentle on the palaeodiversity, stratigraphic historical past, chronology and palaeoenvironmental context of extinct sharks in North Africa through the Late Cretaceous. For a panorama now outlined by sand, rock and excessive dryness, the invention affords a rare reminder of its distant previous. Beneath Egypt’s desert lies a geological archive from a time when the area was a part of a heat tropical sea, and its fossilised shark tooth protect proof of predators that disappeared tens of hundreds of thousands of years earlier than people appeared.
