Researchers surveying a sea cow fossil site (IMAGE)
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Nicholas Pyenson, the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Ferhan Sakal, an archaeologist who is the head of excavation and site management at Qatar Museums, survey Al Maszhabiya with the fossil ribs of a 21-million-year-old sea cow in the foreground.
In a paper published today in the journal PeerJ, researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History worked with collaborators at Qatar Museums to name and describe a new species of sea cow.
Sakal hopes that the ongoing collaboration between Qatar Museums and the Smithsonian will help lead to future discoveries at Al Maszhabiya and nearby sites. But the first step is protecting the area’s rich fossil heritage. Sakal and his colleagues are planning to nominate the area for protection as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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Clare Fieseler
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