UAE | Heritage and Culture
Abu Dhabi fossil sites surveyed
A team from Yale University is working in Abu Dhabi surveying and mapping fossil sites.
- Staff Report
- Published: 23:35 January 4, 2009
- The synsacrum (hip bone) of a large ratite bird, an extinct relative of the ostrich, excavated in the Western Region.
- Image Credit: Supplied picture
Abu Dhabi: A team from Yale University is working in Abu Dhabi surveying and mapping fossil sites.
The team from the Peabody Museum of Natural History in the US arrived in Abu Dhabi in mid-December to continue their collaboration with the Historic Environment Department of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH).
ADACH's Historic Environment team is currently working on an extensive project mapping the location of all fossil sites in Abu Dhabi.
The joint ADACH-Yale project concerns the investigation of the Baynunah Formation, a set of geological deposits rich in fossils, exposed in Abu Dhabi's Western Region.
These sites date back six to eight million years to the Late Miocene epoch when Abu Dhabi was greener, with rivers teeming with hippos, crocodiles, turtles and fish.
Forested areas and savanna-like grasslands were occupied by animals similar to elephants, rhinos, giraffes, horses, antelopes and ostriches.
The team includes members of ADACH's Historic Environment Department. Training is being provided by specialists from the Yale Peabody Museum in the conservation, preparation and study of fossil specimens.
Highlights
The joint team has carried out surveys and excavations at Jaw Al Dibsa, Hamra and Shuwaihat. The highlights of this field season so far have been the discovery and excavation of a well-preserved elephant jaw from Jaw Al Dibsa, as well as a pair of jaws of a primitive horse (known as a 'hipparion') and a crocodile skeleton from Hamra.
Most of the sites are located along the coast of the Western Region, an area under threat from rapid development.
It is important that the Late Miocene deposits receive protection since these represent the most complete, best preserved examples of such deposits on the entire Arabian peninsula.
To mark the end of the present field season an event will be held in Abu Dhabi on Thursday at 7pm.
A reception and public lecture titled "New Discoveries from the Yale University and ADACH Late Miocene Fossil Project" will be presented by Yale University team leaders Professor Andrew Hill and Faisal Bibi at the Bin Majid Hall at the ADACH headquarters at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi.
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