{"id":608411,"date":"2026-08-29T15:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608411\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T15:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:54:15","slug":"researchers-find-shark-graveyard-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608411\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Find Shark Graveyard\u2014in the Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        In a stretch of Egyptian desert that today feels anything but aquatic, scientists say they&#8217;ve found evidence of a bustling ancient sea\u2014in the form of a shark &#8220;graveyard.&#8221; Between 2020 and 2022, researchers working on the Abu-Tartur Plateau in the Western Desert uncovered 16 fossilized teeth from seven shark species, according to a new study in <a href=\"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S0195667126001655\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cretaceous Research<\/a>, reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/animals\/sharks\/an-exciting-surprise-ancient-shark-graveyard-uncovered-in-egyptian-desert\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Live Science<\/a>.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        The teeth date to the Late Cretaceous, roughly 100 million to 66 million years ago, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/shark-graveyard-discovered-in-the-desert-shows-how-much-the-world-has-radically-changed-in-100-million-years-84451\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">IFL Science<\/a>, when higher sea levels flooded what is now arid land. Some of the teeth are from species never before documented in Africa, let alone Egypt. &#8220;It gives us a glimpse into a much more diverse marine ecosystem than we previously knew existed in this part of North Africa,&#8221; lead study author Tarek Yassin of the Geology Department at Cairo University tells the latter outlet. The mix includes an ancient relative of modern goblin sharks, suggesting that a rich and complex marine ecosystem once thrived there. Scientists plan further digs, saying the plateau and its phosphate-rich rocks likely hold more marine fossils.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; In a stretch of Egyptian desert that today feels anything but aquatic, scientists say they&#8217;ve found evidence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[13649,61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-608411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-cretaceous-period","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}