On an expedition, led by Hesham Sallam, an associate professor in AUC’s School of Sciences,
and the founder of Mansoura University’s Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP),
an Egyptian team discovered a new type of large-bodied meat-eating dinosaur, or theropod, known as “Abelisaurid”.
This is a bulldog-faced, and short-armed theropod,
which had never been detected in the oasis,
and it was estimated to be about six metres (20 feet) in body length.
The Bahariya Oasis has long been observed for its extensive fossil collection and the finding of some of the world’s most famous dinosaurs.
“The Bahariya Oasis was not known by its name 98 million years ago.
“In every sense of the term, it was the ‘Dinosaur Oasis,'” Sallam said.
“In terms of Egyptian dinosaurs, we’ve really just scratched the surface,” concludes Sallam.
“Who knows what else might be out there?”
