Primitive elephant footprints excavated in Oman

In a rather fascinating development, fossils of primitive elephants among other mammals which include rodents and hooves have been excavated from Aidam, which falls in the Governorate of Dhofar.

These fossils date back to almost 35 million years which makes this discovery an astounding catch. They date back to period which is named the Oligocene era in geological age and host a number of isolated and distinctive sets of bones and teeth belonging to those mammals.

Historically, Aidam has been home to vestiges of different types of sea creatures, and this is the first time elephant fossils have been found in the area.

Dr. Mohammed bin Hilai Al Kindi led the excavation which was carried out by the Ministry and Culture (MoHC) in association a national team.

Also, the area has been of specific interest to teams from Netherlands, France, and also Oman who very recently found fossils of dinosaurs from the Al Khoudh village which is in the Seeb province.

According to Eric, who is the lead author of the aforementioned study, the discovery holds a lot of importance since it gave the first hints about the possible existence of Hadrosaurian dinosaurs in Arabia.

“Hadrosaurs, according to the traditional understanding, were mainly limited to the northern continents: North America, Europe, Asia,” Buffetaut said.

 “Their presence much further south, in this part of the world, was previously unknown,” Buffetaut further added.

What is of special mention here is that the fossils, which were found in foothills of Oman was a fertile delta around 70 millions years ago.

Fossils of dinosaur have also been excavated from the Omani capital Muscat.