New Fossil Discoveries in Qatar Reveal Ancient Sea Cow Species

Today, the Arabian Gulf supports large numbers of dugongs, marine mammals related to manatees that feed on seagrass and leave trails in the sediment as they graze. Newly examined fossils from Qatar show that sea cows living more than 20 million years ago shaped their environments in much the same way.

The findings, published December 10 in the journal PeerJ, come from a partnership between scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Qatar Museums. The team identified a previously unknown species of ancient sea cow, much smaller than modern dugongs.

Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the National Museum of Natural History and a lead author of the study, stated that the fossils were discovered in rocks less than 10 miles away from a bay with seagrass meadows that make up their prime habitat today.

The area has been prime sea cow habitat for the past 21 million years, occupied by different species over time. Modern dugongs, or Dugong dugon, have a stout body and a downward-facing snout lined with bristles that help them sense food.

Their tails distinguish them from manatees, which have a rounded, paddle-shaped tail. The largest single herd of dugongs occurs in the Arabian Gulf, where their grazing stirs up sediment and releases nutrients that benefit surrounding marine ecosystems.

Despite their long history, dugongs in the Gulf face significant challenges, including accidental catches by local fishers and coastal development. Rising temperatures and increasing salinity also pressure the seagrass meadows that dugongs depend on.

Ferhan Sakal, head of excavation and site management at Qatar Museums and coauthor of the study, noted that crucial information about past seagrass environments is preserved in the region's rock record.

If researchers can learn from past records how seagrass communities survived climate stress or other major disturbances, they might set goals for a better future of the Arabian Gulf. The Al Maszhabiya fossil site in southwestern Qatar is one significant source of these fossils.

Geologists first encountered Al Maszhabiya in the 1970s during mining and petroleum surveys, initially believing they had found reptile bones. Paleontologists later recognized the bones as belonging to ancient sea cows.

After obtaining permits in 2023, Pyenson, Sakal, and their team surveyed the site, finding fossils dating to the Early Miocene, approximately 21 million years ago. The area was once a shallow sea inhabited by sharks, barracuda-like fish, prehistoric dolphins, and sea turtles.

The team documented sea cow remains at more than 170 separate locations across the site, describing Al Maszhabiya as the richest fossil sea cow assemblage known. The ancient animals still had hind limb bones, which living dugongs and manatees lost during their evolution.

The team formally designated the Al Maszhabiya sea cows as a new species, Salwasiren qatarensis, with the genus name referring to the Bay of Salwa, where dugongs live today, and 'qatarensis' honoring Qatar.

Researchers believe Salwasiren weighed around 250 pounds, similar to an adult panda, but was relatively small compared to modern dugongs, which can weigh nearly eight times more. The fossils provide evidence that seagrass beds existed in the region more than 20 million years ago, indicating that sea cows helped maintain these underwater meadows by feeding and disturbing the sediment.

Pyenson stated that the density of the Al Maszhabiya bonebed indicates Salwasiren played the role of a seagrass ecosystem engineer in the Early Miocene, similar to modern dugongs. There may be more dugong relatives to uncover at the site.

Sakal hopes for continued collaboration between Qatar Museums and the Smithsonian for further discoveries and securing protection for the site, with plans to nominate it for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Faisal Al Naimi, coauthor and director of the Archaeology Department at Qatar Museums, emphasized that the findings remind us that this heritage extends deep into geologic time. Pyenson and Sakal worked with the Smithsonian's Digitization Program Office to create digital scans of several fossil sites and skeletal parts of the newly described species, available through the open-source Smithsonian Voyager platform.