If there's one thing Saudi Arabia isn't known for, it's dinosaurs. While it doesn't change that image, scientists have now unearthed the first record of dinosaurs in the Arabian Peninsula.
An international team of researchers from Uppsala University, Museum Victoria, Monash University, and the Saudi Geological Survey found the fossils in northwestern Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea coastline.
The 72-million-year-old fossils were identified as vertebrae bones from a "Brontosaurus-like" sauropod and teeth from a carnivorous therapod, a group of dinosaurs that later evolved into modern-day birds. The sauropod, the study states, was most likely a Titanosaur up to 65 feet in length, while the therapod is a relative of Tyrannosaurs rex no more than 20 feet in length.
"Dinosaur fossils are exceptionally rare in the Arabian Peninsula, with only a handful of highly fragmented bones documented this far," says Benjamin Kear from Uppsala University in Sweden and lead author of the study.
"This discovery is important not only because of where the remains were found, but also because of the fact that we can actually identify them. Indeed, these are the first taxonomically recognizable dinosaurs reported from the Arabian Peninsula."
Saudi Arabia's current climate makes it difficult for scientists to locate fossils in the area since sedimentary rocks containing fossils are rare. The dry desert one thinks of when thinking of Saudi Arabia didn't exist tens of millions of years ago. Instead, the area was, surprisingly, a beach.
"The hardest fossil to find is the first one. Knowing that they occur in a particular area and the circumstances under which they do, makes finding more fossils significantly less difficult," says Tom Rich from Museum Victoria in Australia.
You can read the full published study detailing the findings in the journal PLOS One.
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