Egypt
- Largest Whale Skeleton Found At Siwa Oasis
Al Masry Al Youm With photos. It looks as though these remains date to the same period (and were therefore probably part of the same coastline) as the Faiyum remains of whale, shark and mangrove in the Wadi el-Hitan (Valley of Whales). The Environment...
- Feature: Journeying To See Prehistoric Whales In The Faiyum
Heritage Key (Garry Shaw) With slideshow. If you're into long accounts of travel in four-wheel-drives then you'll find a lot to appeal to you in this article, which is mostly about whether or not the Wadi el Hitan (Valley of the Whales) is an...
- Daily Photo - Wadi El Hitan, Faiyum
Obedient to Fred's promptings, here's a short explanation of today's photos. Wadi el Hitan, the Valley of Whales, is located within the Faiyum Depression. It contains the fossilized remains of plants and sea creatures which lived here when...
- The Faiyum To Become A Tourist Site For Prehistoric Whales
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) In the parched desert on the westernmost edge of the Fayoum Depression stretches Wadi Al-Hitan (Whales Valley), its invaluable fossil remains of the earliest and now extinct sub-order of whales, the Archaeoceti, scattered...
- Wadi El-hitan
http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2006/01jan/whale_valley.cfmAn article about the Eocene 406 whale fossils preserved in the Faiyum Depression at Wadi Hitan (Whale Valley), an area recently designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO: "The great expanse was...
Egypt
Palaeontology: The whales of Wadi el Hitan
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/839/tr3.htm
"Forty million years ago a vast area of the northern part of the Egyptian Western Desert was nothing but a sea. The whole of Fayoum was submerged; it was part of the Tethys Sea. In reality, Tethys Sea was so enormously big that some scholars call it Tethys Ocean rather than sea. When it finally receded, it formed what we know today as the Aral, Caspian and Black seas. In its bluish- green water dwelled creatures that evolved and survived or did not and became extinct. One of the biggest inhabitants of the ancient sea was Zeuglodon, the famous whale of Fayoum.
In the early years of the 19th century, fossils were being systematically destroyed in Louisiana and Alabama in the US. Locals were using it as raw material to make furniture. Somehow, one vertebra made its way into the hands of anatomist Richard Harlan. When he examined the fossil, Harlan mistakenly thought it a reptile and named it Basilosaurus isis, king of the reptiles. In reality, though, it was a Zeuglodon fossil. The gigantic marine mammal known academically as Zeuglodon cetoides, or yoked-tooth, averaged 20 metres in length and had a slender eel-shaped body and saw-like teeth. To add to the oddity, Zeuglodon had small, fully- developed hind legs with a femur, patella, tibia, fibula and four toes.
Theory has it that Wadi Al-Hitan (valley of the whales) was some kind of a bay where the gigantic whales used to harbour. When the Tethys Sea started to recede Zeuglodons became trapped in small water pools in which they eventually died. These mass whale graves contain more than 240 skeletons of the extinct species. "
In the early years of the 19th century, fossils were being systematically destroyed in Louisiana and Alabama in the US. Locals were using it as raw material to make furniture. Somehow, one vertebra made its way into the hands of anatomist Richard Harlan. When he examined the fossil, Harlan mistakenly thought it a reptile and named it Basilosaurus isis, king of the reptiles. In reality, though, it was a Zeuglodon fossil. The gigantic marine mammal known academically as Zeuglodon cetoides, or yoked-tooth, averaged 20 metres in length and had a slender eel-shaped body and saw-like teeth. To add to the oddity, Zeuglodon had small, fully- developed hind legs with a femur, patella, tibia, fibula and four toes.
Theory has it that Wadi Al-Hitan (valley of the whales) was some kind of a bay where the gigantic whales used to harbour. When the Tethys Sea started to recede Zeuglodons became trapped in small water pools in which they eventually died. These mass whale graves contain more than 240 skeletons of the extinct species. "
See the above page for the full story.
- Largest Whale Skeleton Found At Siwa Oasis
Al Masry Al Youm With photos. It looks as though these remains date to the same period (and were therefore probably part of the same coastline) as the Faiyum remains of whale, shark and mangrove in the Wadi el-Hitan (Valley of Whales). The Environment...
- Feature: Journeying To See Prehistoric Whales In The Faiyum
Heritage Key (Garry Shaw) With slideshow. If you're into long accounts of travel in four-wheel-drives then you'll find a lot to appeal to you in this article, which is mostly about whether or not the Wadi el Hitan (Valley of the Whales) is an...
- Daily Photo - Wadi El Hitan, Faiyum
Obedient to Fred's promptings, here's a short explanation of today's photos. Wadi el Hitan, the Valley of Whales, is located within the Faiyum Depression. It contains the fossilized remains of plants and sea creatures which lived here when...
- The Faiyum To Become A Tourist Site For Prehistoric Whales
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) In the parched desert on the westernmost edge of the Fayoum Depression stretches Wadi Al-Hitan (Whales Valley), its invaluable fossil remains of the earliest and now extinct sub-order of whales, the Archaeoceti, scattered...
- Wadi El-hitan
http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2006/01jan/whale_valley.cfmAn article about the Eocene 406 whale fossils preserved in the Faiyum Depression at Wadi Hitan (Whale Valley), an area recently designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO: "The great expanse was...