cosmos-one: Aquatic Prehistoric Fossils Found In The Sahara Desert.  It is one of the driest re

cosmos-one:Aquatic Prehistoric Fossils Found In The Sahara Desert. It is one of the driest regions of the world, receiving just a few inches of rain a year, but the bodies of whales has emerged from the shifting sands of the Egyptian Sahara Desert. The fossilized remains are helping to reveal how much of Egypt was once covered by a vast ancient ocean around 50 million years ago.The arid landscape of Wadi Al-Hitan, which means Valley of the Whales, was once submerged beneath a vast ocean. Among its wind-sculpted sandstone buttes and cliffs, scientists have unearthed a treasure trove of prehistoric whale bones. Hundreds of fossils catch these ancient whales in the act of losing their land-legs and entering the sea. Also buried among them are sharks, crocodiles, rays, turtles, and other seafaring creatures. Wadi Al-Hitan, or the Valley of the Whales, boasts a fascinating collection of fossils at the bottom of an ocean called the Tethys Sea, which occupied the space in between Africa and Asia. The Valley of the Whales in Egypt is home to some of the most remarkable paleontoloical sites on Earth due to its unusual history.The area was at the bottom of an ocean called the Tethys Sea. The whale skeletons in the region offer a glimpse into the past, as the species of whale that once called this desert valley home is now extinct. The Archaeoceti, which means ‘ancient wales’, found in Wadi Al-Hitan are some of the earliest forms of whales to have emerge. Cetaceans evolved from a land-based creature with legs, which is why many species of whale and dolphin have a phantom hip bone where the legs once attached to the body.Paleontologists have discovered the fossil remains of theworld’s biggest ocean-dwelling crocodile too buried on the edge of the Sahara, a creature that was twice the size of anything seen today and so many other aquatic fossils. Fossilized sharks, whales and plants have allowed paleontologists to build a picture of the ecology of the lost ancient ocean.  -- source link

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