In the Desert of Egypt.. A 62 Million-Year-Old Discovery That Rewrites the History of the Seas

Editor’s Note: "Earth Call" is an editorial series from Afaq News committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet and the solutions to address them. Rolex, through its "Perpetual Planet" initiative, has partnered with Afaq News Network to raise awareness and knowledge about key sustainability issues and inspire positive action - Al-Mansoura University in Egypt announced a scientific discovery documenting how modern marine life began after the extinction of the dinosaurs, in a statement published on its official Facebook page on Wednesday.

An international research team led by the University of Mansoura's Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP), headed by vertebrate paleontologist and center founder Hisham Salam, successfully documented an exceptional fossil site in Egypt's Eastern Desert, revealing one of the most important stages in the history of marine life, which is the emergence of modern marine fish after the extinction of the dinosaurs. The President of Al-Mansoura University, Dr. Sherif Khater, stated in the announcement that the discovery "enhances Egypt's position on the global scientific research map and supports its role as a soft power based on science and knowledge."

A rare global site, Salam explained that the discovered fossil site dates back about 62.2 million years, just less than four million years after the mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago, which led to the disappearance of about 75% of life forms on the surface of the Earth, including non-flying dinosaurs. Salam pointed out that the site is considered one of the rare "Lagerstätten" fossil sites globally, which are exceptional fossil sites characterized by the complete and precise preservation of ancient organisms.

This provided scientists with a rare opportunity to understand the form of life and marine environments in ancient times. The research team also succeeded in documenting hundreds of complete marine fish fossils with "exceptional quality," according to the statement, including more than 20 new species that were previously unknown, making the site one of the most important and richest fossil sites that date the beginnings of the Paleocene epoch.

Salam explained that the importance of the discovery lies not only in the large number of fossils but also in the modern nature of the discovered fish community. The study showed that most of the fish belong to the "percomorpha" group, which is one of the largest groups of bony fish living in the world's oceans today, including well-known species such as tuna, mackerel, seahorses, and moonfish. He confirmed that the results reveal that modern marine fish appeared more rapidly than scientists had previously thought, and that ancient tropical seas, including the area represented by Egypt, may have been the initial starting point for the spread of these modern groups around the world.

For her part, Dr. Sana'a Al-Sayed, a researcher at the Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Paleontology, assistant professor at Mansoura University, and the first author of the study, confirmed that the site documents a very early stage in the emergence of groups that later became key components of modern oceans. According to Salam, the study also revealed the absence of several ancient predatory fish that once dominated the seas, despite the exceptional preservation of the site.

This supports the hypothesis that the great extinction caused a complete reshaping of marine life, opening the way for modern fish to occupy the ecological roles left behind by the extinct species. The work on the study, published in the scientific journal "Science Advances," took more than six years of field research and laboratory analysis, as part of a scientific collaboration between Mansoura University and the University of Michigan in the United States.