Egyptian reseach team unearths fossil of 70M year old river turtle dating back

CAIRO - 1 April 2023: An Egyptian research team succeeded in discovering a river turtle dating back more than 70 million years in Kharga city in the New Valley in the Western Desert in Egypt.

 

The team is a joint reseach team from both Cairo University and New Valley University in Egypt. A report detailing the success was sent from Dr. Ahmed Abdo Al-Sharif, Dean of the Faculty of Science at Cairo University to Dr. Muhammad Othman Al-Khasht, President of Cairo University.  

 

The report indicated that the research was participated in by Dr. Muhammad Qarni Ismail Abdel-Gawad, Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, from Cairo University, and it was worked on and published in the internationally classified Diversity magazine, as the report indicates that the fossil was discovered more than 3 years ago, and it is a phrase A semi-complete shell of a turtle that lived through the age of dinosaurs more than 70 million years ago, and it is one of the species that live in rivers and fresh water, and it was well extracted because of the good way it was preserved inside the mountain.

 

The report pointed out that the new discovery of the turtle reflects the great importance of the Western Desert in Egypt because it contains many vertebrate fossils, which appeared in southern Egypt from other countries in Africa due to the appropriate climatic conditions for their existence, which disappeared in the rest of Africa during this era.

 

The report stated that this scientific discovery was recorded for the first time in Egypt and North Africa and was defined as khargachelys carioensis, after the cities of Kharga and Cairo (Cairo University). This discovery is a continuation of the fossil records of ancient turtles in Africa.

 

For his part, Dr. Muhammad Qarni Ismail Abdel-Gawad, Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, said that the fossil that was discovered has a number of characteristics that are not found in similar ones in the world, and that the team members worked together with a high methodology for a period of 3 years to reach the species.