Paleontologists have discovered a significant concentration of dugong fossils at Al Masjabiya, an early Miocene dam site in Qatar. These fossils indicate that the Arabian Gulf has undergone various species of sea cows over the past 20 million years. One of these species is Salvacillen catalensis.
An artistic rendering of a group of Salvacillen catalensis foraging on the ocean floor. Image credit: Alex Boersma.
It has a robust body and a downturned snout adorned with sensitive bristles. Dugongs (dugong dugong) are closely related to manatees.
A key distinction between these aquatic herbivores, often referred to as sea cows, is their tails. Manatees possess a paddle-like tail, whereas dugongs feature a fluke-like tail that resembles that of a dolphin.
Dugongs inhabit coastal waters stretching from western Africa through the Indo-Pacific to northern Australia.
The Arabian Gulf hosts the world’s largest dugong population, making sea cows critical to the ecosystem.
As they graze on seagrass, dugongs alter the ocean floor, creating feeding channels that release buried nutrients into the surrounding waters for use by other marine life.
“We uncovered a distant ancestor of the dugong in a rock formation less than 16 kilometers (10 miles) from a bay with seagrass meadows, which is currently the primary habitat for dugongs,” stated Dr. Nicholas Pienson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the National Museum of Natural History.
“This region has served as the main habitat for sea cows for the past 21 million years, with different species occupying this role over time.”
Few locations preserve as many bones as Al Masjabiya, a fossil site in southwestern Qatar.
The bone beds were initially identified in the 1970s during mining and oil exploration, when geologists found a large number of “reptilian” bones scattered across the desert.
Paleontologists revisited the area in the early 2000s and soon realized that these fossils belonged to sea cows, not ancient reptiles.
Using the surrounding rock layers as a guide, Dr. Pienson and his team dated the bone bed to the early Miocene, approximately 21 million years ago.
They found fossils indicating that this area was once a shallow marine habitat teeming with sharks, barracuda-like fish, prehistoric dolphins, and sea turtles.
Researchers identified over 170 different sites containing sea cow fossils throughout the Al Masjabiya location.
This renders the bone bed the richest trove of fossilized sea cow remains globally.
The fossilized bones from Al Masjabiya bore a resemblance to modern dugongs, although ancient sea cows still had hind limb bones, which contemporary dugongs and manatees have lost through evolution.
The prehistoric sea cows found here exhibited straighter snouts and smaller tusks compared to their living counterparts.
Researchers classified Al Masjabiya’s fossil sea cow as a new species: Salvacillen catalensis.
“Using a national name for this species seemed fitting, as it clearly indicates the location where the fossil was discovered,” said Dr. Ferhan Sakal, a researcher at Qatar Museums.
Estimated weight: 113 kg (250 lbs), Salvacillen catalensis would weigh as much as an adult panda or a heavyweight boxer.
Nonetheless, it was among the smaller sea cow species ever found, with some modern dugongs weighing nearly eight times as much as Salvacillen catalensis.
Based on the fossils, scientists theorize that the region was rich in seagrass beds more than 20 million years ago, during an era when the bay was a hotspot of biodiversity, supported by sea cows nurturing these aquatic meadows.
“The density of al-Mashabiya’s bone bed provides a significant clue. Salvacillen catalensis acted as seagrass ecosystem engineers in the early Miocene, much like dugongs do today,” Dr. Pienson added.
“Though the evolutionary agents have completely changed, the ecological roles have remained the same.”
The findings are documented in a published paper available at: Peer J.
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ND Pienson et al., 2025. The abundance of early Miocene sea cows from Qatar demonstrates the repeated evolution of eastern Tethyan seagrass ecosystem engineers. Peer J 13: e20030; doi: 10.7717/peerj.20030
Source: www.sci.news
