Fossils in Saudi Arabia

                   

I was visiting friends recently and learned something new and at least to me, quite fascinating.  Fossils are in abundance in the Kingdom and pretty easy to find as well.  My friends, who are fellow Americans, have always enjoyed searching for fossils wherever they live or travel.  Through them, I have learned the Kingdom is an ideal place to go out and about and search for fossils.  In fact, quoting from the “Tour Saudi Arabia” web site (www.toursaudiarabia.com) “The low ridge of the hills east of Khurais, about 2.5 hours east of Riyadh, contain the fossilized remains of the marine life deposited about 45 million years ago.”  The King Abdulaziz Museum in the heart of old Riyadh also has a wing dedicated to the history of civilization and this wing has on display incredible fossils which have been discovered at various places throughout the Kingdom.

  

Now going back to my friends, they showed me jar upon jar filled with various fossils that they found in and around Riyadh.  In no case did they drive for more than one hour.  They would usually drive to an area where the terrain would change from the flat desert and instead have more “solid hills” which were made of packed sands and rocks.  At the base of these hills they would simply walk around looking at the ground beneath their feet.  In many cases, they came home with multiple handfuls of fossils.  The images chosen with this post are representative of the types of fossils found here in the Kingdom.

         

  

 

For more information about fossils in Saudi Arabia, please see the following links:

http://www.sgs.org.sa/index.cfm?id=308&sec=1&sub=2&page=news_full.cfm  This link describes the results of a joint Saudi-Australian team who undertook a survey of the vertebrate fossil potential of the Jilh Formation.  This link describes their mission, survey, results and is accompanied by photos of the fossil formations discovered.

  http://www.arabianwildlife.com/archive/vol2.2/sau.htm This link describes how many fossils have been discovered during the quest for oil.  It also continues with specific details about the locations of and types of fossils found in the Kingdom.