Buzz
Deserts are often depicted as vast, barren wastelands. While their surface may seem sparse, there’s an incredible amount to be found beneath the sand. For decades, archaeologists have been unearthing fossils in deserts, with a particular focus on the Sahara Desert, the largest hot desert on Earth.
Fossils, found all over the world, are remnants of ancient organisms that have been preserved in the Earth's layers over time. Despite their widespread presence, the Sahara Desert is home to some of the oldest, largest, and most extraordinary fossils ever discovered. These ancient remains offer a fascinating glimpse into Earth’s history and the creatures that roamed it, including humans.
10. Massive Catfish
In 2017, an ancient relative of the familiar catfish was discovered in the sands of Egypt. The newly identified species, named Qarmoutus hitanensis, is estimated to have lived around 37 million years ago.
Measuring approximately 2 meters (6.5 ft) in length, this specimen ranks among the larger catfish species. Qarmoutus hitanensis is a completely new genus and species, marking it as a fascinating early branch in the catfish family tree.
John Lundberg of Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences notes that despite its age, this ancient fossil is strikingly similar to today’s catfish. “Although the fossil is considered old by conventional standards, spanning millions of years, it retains a remarkably modern anatomical structure and can be directly compared to present-day catfish,” Lundberg explained. “It stands out as one of the most well-preserved and oldest members of its family.”
9. Gigantic Crocodile
In 2014, paleontologists uncovered the remains of one of the largest crocodiles ever discovered. This prehistoric creature, named Machimosaurus rex, was twice the size of modern crocodiles. It is estimated to have weighed at least 2,993 kilograms (6,600 lbs) and reached a length of about 9.8 meters (32 feet). The fossil was found in Tunisia, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
The Machimosaurus rex was likely the dominant predator in an ocean that once separated Africa and Europe roughly 130 million years ago. Federico Fanti from the University of Bologna, a member of the team that made the discovery, said, “The skull itself is as large as I am. It’s more than five feet long. This was a colossal crocodile, so big and powerful that it was undoubtedly at the top of the food chain.”
This discovery is particularly notable not just because of the crocodile’s size, but also because these creatures were thought to have gone extinct during a mass extinction event between the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods around 150 million years ago. The find challenges this belief, suggesting that the extinction event was not as widespread as previously assumed by paleontologists.
“Everyone believed this species of crocodile had become extinct during the Jurassic, but we discovered it surviving well into the Cretaceous,” Fanti explained. “We’ve simply extended the known lifespan of these creatures. Twenty million years is a significant stretch of time.”
8. Spinosaurus Fossil
Spinosaurus is widely regarded in the scientific community as one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs to have ever roamed the Earth. A colossal fossil found in 2014 in the Sahara Desert provided scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to study the creature. The 95-million-year-old remains reinforced a theory that Spinosaurus is the first known swimming dinosaur.
Researchers believe that the creature had broad, paddle-like feet and nostrils positioned atop its crocodilian head, allowing it to easily submerge. Unlike other ancient water-dwelling creatures such as the plesiosaur and mosasaur, which were marine reptiles rather than dinosaurs, Spinosaurus stands as the only known semiaquatic dinosaur.
Nizar Ibrahim, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, commented:
It is an incredibly strange dinosaur—there's no real comparison. It possessed a long neck, elongated body, lengthy tail, a 2.13-meter (7 ft) sail on its back, and a snout like a crocodile's. When we examine the proportions of its body, it is clear that it wasn't as agile on land as other dinosaurs, leading me to believe it spent a significant amount of time in water.
Although the initial Spinosaurus remains were discovered roughly 100 years ago in Egypt, they were unfortunately lost during World War II when an Allied bomb struck a museum in Munich, Germany. Only a few sketches of the fossil survived, and since then, only fragments of Spinosaurus bones have been found. However, the recent discovery of a new fossil in eastern Morocco has given scientists a much clearer view of this ancient dinosaur.
“For the first time ever, we can combine the information from the old skeleton’s drawings, the bone fragments, and now this new fossil to reconstruct the entire dinosaur,” explained Ibrahim. “The hind limbs were shorter compared to other predatory dinosaurs, the claws were notably wide, and the feet were nearly paddle-shaped.”
As time passed, the scientists kept finding more evidence supporting the creature’s aquatic lifestyle. Ibrahim remarked:
The snout bears a striking resemblance to that of fish-eating crocodiles, featuring interlocking cone-shaped teeth. Even the bones appear more akin to those of aquatic creatures than those of other dinosaurs. They are quite dense, a characteristic shared by animals like penguins or sea cows, which helps with buoyancy in water.
7. Legged Whales
Wadi Al-Hitan, also known as “Whale Valley,” is a paleontological site located in Egypt’s Al Fayyum Governorate, about 150 kilometers (93.2 miles) southwest of Cairo. In 2005, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site after hundreds of remarkable fossils were uncovered in the region.
The valley earned its name due to the exceptional concentration of marine fossils. Among the most significant discoveries at the site are the remains of Archaeoceti, an extinct suborder of whales. These fossils play a crucial role in understanding evolution, marking the transition of whales from land-dwelling ancestors to ocean-going mammals.
The first whale skeletons were found in 1902. Initially, the site garnered little attention due to its inaccessibility. However, this changed in the 1980s when four-wheel-drive vehicles became more widely available.
The largest whale skeleton discovered measures 21 meters (69 feet) in length, featuring well-developed five-fingered flippers on the forelimbs and the surprising presence of hind legs, feet, and toes, which had not been previously identified in any Archaeoceti.
In addition to whales, hundreds of other marine animals like crocodiles, turtles, sharks, and rays have been discovered. Some of these fossils are so well-preserved that even the stomach contents have been maintained. The exceptional quality and abundance of these remains enable scientists to reconstruct the environmental and ecological conditions that existed at the time.
6. 480-Million-Year-Old Mystery Creature
A puzzling creature, which lived hundreds of millions of years ago, was a subject of heated debate among scientists for 150 years after its discovery in the 1850s. The mystery was finally solved in early 2019 when newly discovered, exceptionally detailed fossils from Morocco helped paleontologists identify this strange life-form.
These life-forms, called stylophorans, appeared as flat, armored structures resembling wall decorations with a long arm extending from their sides. Earlier, scientists struggled to classify them within the animal kingdom. However, the new findings revealed that these creatures were echinoderms—ancient relatives of modern animals like starfish, sea lilies, sea urchins, feather stars, and sea cucumbers.
Lead researcher Bertrand Lefebvre explained that the breakthrough was made possible by fossils that showed "unequivocal evidence for exceptionally preserved soft parts, both in the appendage and in the body of stylophorans." Although these remarkable fossils were discovered along the edge of the Sahara Desert in 2014, it wasn't immediately recognized that some of the 450 stylophoran specimens contained preserved soft tissues.
"This discovery is of particular importance because it ends a 150-year-old debate about the placement of these peculiar fossils in the tree of life," said Lefebvre.
5. World’s Oldest Biological Color
In 2018, a group of scientists uncovered the oldest known color in the geological record beneath the Sahara Desert. The fossils they excavated displayed a range of remarkable colors.
Initially green, the fossils transformed into bloodred to deep purple when concentrated. However, once diluted, a bright pink pigment in oil form emerged. This vibrant pink pigment is estimated to be 1.1 billion years old.
According to Nur Gueneli from The Australian National University, the ancient pigment was extracted from marine black shales in the Taoudeni Basin of Mauritania, West Africa. Gueneli explained that the pigment originated from molecular fossils of chlorophyll, processed by ancient photosynthetic organisms that once dominated the oceans.
"Of course, you might argue that everything has some color," remarked senior lead researcher Jochen Brocks. He likened the discovery to finding an ancient T. rex bone. "It would also have a color, perhaps gray or brown, but it wouldn't tell you anything about the skin color of a T. rex."
Brocks added, "If you were to find preserved, fossilized skin of a T. rex, with the original color still intact—say it was blue or green—that would be extraordinary."
He concluded, "That's essentially what we've uncovered... but it's 10 times older than the typical T. rex. And the molecules we've found weren't from a large creature, but microscopic organisms, as animals didn't exist at that time. That's what's truly remarkable."
4. Newly Discovered Pterosaur and Mysterious Sauropod
Uncovering a new dinosaur species is a rare achievement, but discovering two entirely new species in one expedition is the ultimate dream for any paleontologist. In 2008, a team of paleontologists made that dream come true when they discovered a new pterosaur and an unidentified sauropod dinosaur in the Sahara Desert.
The pterosaur was recognized from a large piece of its beak, while the sauropod was identified from a long bone, more than 0.9 meters (3 feet) in length. This bone pointed to an herbivore, estimated to be nearly 20 meters (65 feet) long. Both of these massive creatures existed nearly 100 million years ago.
Pterosaur fossils are especially rare due to their lightweight, fragile bones, which are adapted for flight and don’t often survive in well-preserved conditions. Nizar Ibrahim, who led the expedition as a graduate student at University College Dublin, said, “Most pterosaur discoveries are limited to fragments of teeth and bones, so finding a large part of the beak was incredibly exciting and suggested we may have uncovered a new species.”
3. The Oldest Fossils of Homo sapiens
In 1961, miners in Morocco uncovered fragments of a skull at a site known as Jebel Irhoud. Subsequent excavations revealed additional bones, along with flint blades and charcoal, suggesting that early humans used fire. Initially, the remains were thought to be around 40,000 years old, until paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin examined a jawbone in the 1980s.
Though the teeth closely resembled those of modern humans, the jawbone's shape appeared quite primitive. “It didn’t add up,” Dr. Hublin remembered. In 2004, he and his team began working through the rock layers on a desert hillside at Jebel Irhoud. Over time, they uncovered numerous fossils, including skull bones from five individuals who all perished around the same time.
The team also discovered significant flint blades buried in the same sedimentary layer as the skulls. Early humans at Jebel Irhoud likely used fire to cook food, leaving the blades heated and discarded in the ground. These heated blades served as natural historical clocks, aiding in the dating of the site.
Using a technique called thermoluminescence, Dr. Hublin and his team determined that the blades were heated approximately 300,000 years ago. Since the skulls were found in the same sedimentary layer, they too must have been from around the same period. Despite their age, the anatomical features of the teeth and jaws revealed they belonged to Homo sapiens, not another hominin species like the Neanderthals.
Nonetheless, the researcher’s findings remain a point of contention. Anthropologists continue to debate the specific physical traits that set modern humans apart from their ancestors. Prior to this, the oldest fossils universally accepted as Homo sapiens were estimated to be about 200,000 years old. This new discovery pushes the timeline for the emergence of our species back by another 100,000 years.
2. The Holy Grail of Dinosaur Fossils
In 2013, a team of scientists from Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology (MUVP) uncovered what is now considered the holy grail of dinosaur fossils—a nearly complete, school-bus-sized dinosaur from the Cretaceous period. The well-preserved remains belong to a titanosaurian sauropod, a long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur that roamed the Earth approximately 94 to 66 million years ago.
The dinosaur, named Mansourasaurus shahinae gen, was unearthed from the Quseir formations of Egypt's Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert. It became the sixth and youngest dinosaur species discovered in Egypt. Hesham Sallam, the lead researcher of the study, stated that the fossils represent the most intact remains of a dinosaur from this era ever found on the African continent.
“Uncovering and extracting Mansourasaurus was an incredible experience for the MUVP team,” explained Sallam. “It was truly exciting for my students to unearth bone after bone, as each piece brought us closer to understanding the nature of this enormous dinosaur.”
1. Fish Fossils Unveil Ancient Mega-Lake Discovery
In 2010, scientists unearthed evidence of a massive prehistoric lake that existed beneath the Sahara's sands about 250,000 years ago, formed when the Nile River flooded the eastern Sahara. At its peak, the lake spanned more than 108,780 square kilometers (42,000 square miles) and reached a height of 247 meters (810 feet) above sea level.
Scientists believe that the Nile River once inundated the entire Kiseiba-Tushka depression in Egypt, creating a vast lake. Fish fossils found approximately 402 kilometers (250 miles) west of the Nile played a crucial role in this discovery, serving as a marker for the highest shoreline of the ancient lake's sea level.
Researchers also utilized radar data from Egypt collected by the Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Geologists reconstructed the profile of the mega-lake using images of windblown sediments, water-formed sediments, and the bedrock lying beneath the desert sands.
Archaeological sites near Bir Kiseiba, located 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of the Nile, suggest the presence of a second, lower-level lake at 190 meters (623 feet) above sea level. This smaller lake is believed to have covered 48,174 square kilometers (18,600 square miles). It adds to the growing body of evidence for several Early and Middle Pleistocene lakes across North Africa, which may have influenced human migration patterns.
