The features of Planet Earth change across the ages; a prime example is the Whales Valley at the heart of the Western Desert of Egypt. What was once part of the ocean has become a barren—but not empty—desert. It embraces invaluable fossils that has enabled scientists to explore the past and study the geological and biological history of Planet Earth.
The Whales Valley is located north-west of Wadi El-Rayan protectorate in Fayoum Governorate in the Egyptian Western Desert. Since its discovery in the early twentieth century, the Valley has revealed the greatest fossil findings of the ancestors of whales. According to UNESCO, the Valley is an exceptional global reference site for studying the evolution of whales and their environment, as it hosts a large number of complete skeletons in good quality.
The history of the Whales Valley dates back 40–50 million years ago, when the water of the Tethys Ocean covered the area currently south of the Mediterranean Sea. This area inhabited by whales ancestors turned into a marine environment, rich in different forms of life. Then, the water retreated leaving behind layers of sediments that preserved the fossils of these creatures in good condition until today. Besides whales, there are fossils of sea cows, shark teeth, turtles, and crocodilians. The fossils of these creatures have maintained their shapes and features until today. Even some stomach contents are intact, enabling paleontologists to study them.
You may be wondering how these giant marine creatures we know today could live on land. In fact, the Valley hosts hundreds of skeletons of whale ancestors belonging to the Archaeoceti parvorder; these whales represent the initial amphibious stages in the evolution of cetacean. This means that whales were terrestrial mammals that walked on limbs; then, they gradually evolved and lost these limbs, turning into marine animals with fins. Yet, whales lost neither their lungs nor reproduction method; these two features distinguish them from other marine species that use gills to absorb dissolved oxygen and reproduce by laying eggs. As such, the fossils of the Whales Valley serve as hard evidence that documents how species evolve and adapt with the changing environment for survival.
Prominent Fossils of the Whales Valley
Discoveries of fossils in the Whales Valley started in early twentieth century; yet, they flourished as of the 1980s. Now, let us shed light on two of the most prominent fossil discoveries.
In 2005, the accomplishment of the excavation work of a complete Basilosaurus isis fossil was announced. The excavation was a joint research project between the University of Michigan and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency. This whale was 18 meters long, and swam in an S pattern, like a snake moves. This distinguished fossil was chosen to be the masterpiece of the Fossil and Climate Change Museum, inaugurated in Whales Valley in 2016, to be the first of its kind in the Middle East.
In 2008, an Egyptian research team from Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP) discovered a fossil of a new species and genus of whales in the Valley. The fossil belongs to a predator amphibious whale with four limbs and is the most primitive fossil from the Protocetidae family. The whale was three meters long, and weighed about 600 kilograms. Researchers dubbed it Phiomicetus anubis, after the ancient Egyptian god of death, since the whale's skull bears a resemblance to the skull of the jackal-headed Anubis. The team has carried out extensive research before publishing the paper announcing its discovery in the Proceedings of the Royal Society journal, in August 2021.
Indeed, the Whales Valley is an exceptionally significant and distinguished site. In 1997, the Egyptian Government announced it a Special Protected Area within Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area. Also, UNESCO has inscribed it on the Natural World Heritage Sites list in 2005. The area has also received a Guinness World Record for containing the highest concentration of Eocene whales in 2010. In addition to the importance of the Valley for studying natural history, it is also home for some threatened species, such as the Egyptian gazelle and the fennec fox, and is an Important Bird Area (IBA) for rare migrating birds, such as the peregrine falcon and the osprey.
References
euronews.com
geologypage.com
livescience.com
phys.org
scientificarab.com
whc.unesco.org
world-heritage-datasheets.unep-wcmc.org
*Special thanks to Fatma Aseil.
*Banner image Wikimania commons