Abu Dhabi – 8 Million Years Ago Late Miocene Fossils from the Western Region Edited by Mark Beech and Peter Hellyer - 1 - ABU DHABI – 8 MILLION YEARS AGO Late Miocene Fossils from the Western Region Edited by Mark Beech and Peter Hellyer - 2 - Published by: Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (ADIAS), P.O. Box 45553, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Email: [email protected] Web: www.adias-uae.com Sponsored by: TAKREER, the Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company ADCO, Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations BP Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA Edited by Mark Beech & Peter Hellyer Text: Copyright 2005 ADIAS and authors. Photographs: Copyright of ADIAS, Peter Whybrow/Natural History Museum and contributors. Type setting: Set in Verdana 11pt and 8 pt Design by Genedine dela Fuente P.O. Box 43998, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Email: [email protected] Printed by: Dar Al Fajr Printing Press, Abu Dhabi All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the Editors. ISBN 9948-03-188-1 Cover picture: Abu Dhabi 8 million years ago. Painting by Gemma Goodall, Antares Design - Web: www.antaresdesign.com Back cover: The 2.54 m long tusk of the primitive elephant species, Stegotetrabelodon syrticus discovered at Ruwais (Photograph by Dr Mark Beech). - 3 - CONTENTS Foreword - by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan List of Figures Introduction Chapter 1 - The Impact of Archaeology on the Paleontology of the Western Province of Abu Dhabi: the History of Palaeontological Research Walid Yasin Al Tikriti Chapter 2 - Miocene Geology and Fossils of Abu Dhabi John R. Stewart Chapter 3 - The Late Miocene fossil site at Ruwais Mark Beech Chapter 4 - Conservation of Late Miocene fossils from Abu Dhabi Nigel Larkin Chapter 5 - Footprints from the Past: the Proboscidean trackway at Mleisa Will Higgs Chapter 6 – Conclusion: The importance of Abu Dhabi's Late Miocene fossil sites Mark Beech and Peter Hellyer Appendix 1 - Catalogue of the Fossils in the Exhibition “Abu Dhabi 8 Million Years Ago – Fossils from the Western Region” Dr Mark Beech Appendix 2 - Constructing the scale model of Stegotetrabelodon syrticus Abdul Hafeez, Izhar Hafeez and Mark Beech Appendix 3 - The reconstruction painting “Abu Dhabi 8 million years ago” Gemma Goodall and Nigel Larkin Appendix 4 - The audio-visual presentations in the Exhibition “Abu Dhabi 8 Million Years Ago – Fossils from the Western Region” Mark Beech Appendix 5 – Contributors Bibliography - 4 - For Peter J. Whybrow (1942-2004) a pioneer in the study of the Late Miocene fossils of the United Arab Emirates Peter Whybrow holding the fossil crocodile skull from Shuwaihat, Al Ain Museum, 1989 - 5 - FOREWORD In the arid landscape and climate that now characterise the United Arab Emirates, it is difficult to comprehend that once this country was a land of fertile plains, rather like today's East African savannahs. The plains had large rivers flowing through them, with a wide variety of animals like elephants, horses, giraffes, gazelles, hyaenas, sabre-toothed cats, apes, ostrichs and other birds, on land and, in the rivers, hippopotami, crocodiles, turtles and large fish. Yet six to eight million years ago, during the Late Miocene period, the Western Region of Abu Dhabi looked much like this. The discovery of the fossil bones and landscapes that tell of this ancient past has been the result of nearly twenty years of painstaking scientific investigation, both by fossil experts (palaeontologists) from overseas institutions like the Natural History Museum in London and Yale University, in the United States, and by local bodies like the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS, and the Department of Antiquities and Tourism in the Diwan of the Ruler's Representative in Abu Dhabi's Eastern Region. This short book is designed to bring knowledge of those discoveries to a wider audience, and is published to coincide with the inauguration of a special exhibition of some of the larger and more dramatic fossil finds, like the tusk of an elephant that is over two and a half metres long discovered by ADIAS at Ruwais in 2002, as well as the elephant fossils discovered by the Natural History Museum team at Shuweihat in the 1990’s which included a skull, pair of jaws and leg bone. It is our hope that, together, the book and the exhibition will introduce residents of the Emirates, in particular the younger generation, to this fascinating aspect of the country's past. In times such as these, when the United Arab Emirates is developing at a breathtaking pace and is enjoying all of the benefits of modern technology and services, it is appropriate that we should take the time to remember the country's past - for it is from there that we derive our roots, and from there that the environment of today has evolved. Without knowledge of our past heritage, both human and natural, we cannot fully appreciate the benefits of today, and those to come in the future. Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Patron, Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (ADIAS) - 6 - LIST OF FIGURES All figures are copyright ADIAS, except where otherwise stated. Figure 1. Peter Whybrow and Walid Yasin Al-Tikriti holding an elephant scapula outside Al Ain Museum in 1989. Figure 2. Peter Whybrow, Andrew Hill and Walid Yasin Al-Tikriti (from left to right) inspecting the crocodile skull at Shuwaihat in 1989. Figure 3. Tooth, Lower third molar, from the primitive elephant species, Stegotetrabelodon syrticus, found at Ras Dubay’ah. Figure 4. Jaw from a three-toed horse (Hipparion). Scale is a one dirham coin. Figure 5. Cliff section at Jebel Barakah, with Peter Whybrow. Figure 6. Map showing the location of fossil sites in the western region of Abu Dhabi. Figure 7. Ernie Hailwood drilling at Jebel Barakah in 1990 taking palaeomagnetic dating samples. Peter Whybrow observing. Figure 8. Crocodile (Ikanogavialis) jaw from Shuwaihat (Site S1, no.56). Figure 9. Plan of the elephant excavation at Shuwaihat. Stippled area indicates carbonate gravel spread (after Whybrow and Hill 1999, Fig.24.8). Figure 10. A sabre-tooth cat tries to sink its teeth into the primitive 3-toed horse, Hipparion. Figure 11. Abu Dhabi 8 million years ago – reconstruction painting by Gemma Goodall. Figure 12. Searching for fossils at Ruwais. Figure 13. Map of the location of fossil sites at Ruwais. Red line marks the area of the Takreer development. Blue square indicates the core development area. Figure 14. Types of Fossils represented at Ruwais. Figure 15. Measuring the elephant tusk at site RUW0044, Ruwais, in November 2002. Figure 16. Will Higgs prepares the Polyeurathane foam jacket around the tusk to help protect it. Figure 17. Top: the elephant tusk is now sitting completely on its wooden and steel supporting frame and its polyeurathane foam jacket is complete. Bottom: Takreer provides a crane and lorry to transport the tusk to Abu Dhabi. Figure 18. Dr Mark Beech examines the elephant jaws prior to excavation at site RUW0013. Scale = 1 metre. Figure 19. The elephant jaws at site RUW0013. Scale = 1 metre. - 7 - Figure 20. Plan of the fossils excavated at ‘Elephant Hill’, site RUW0048, Ruwais. Figure 21. View of the excavations at ‘Elephant Hill’, site RUW0048, Ruwais. Note the four elephant ribs visible in the foreground. Figure 22. The 1.94 metre long elephant tusk discovered at ‘Elephant Hill’, site RUW0048, Ruwais. From left to right: Sulaiman Daoud Al Siksek and Mohammed al-Yabhouni (TAKREER), Will Higgs (ADIAS). Figure 23. Swan mussel (Unionidae) found at ‘Elephant Hill’, site RUW0048, Ruwais. Figure 24. ADIAS Database of Late Miocene Fossils from the western region of Abu Dhabi. Figure 25. Dr John Stewart examining fossil specimens in the ADIAS research laboratory, Abu Dhabi. Figure 26. Removing the polyeurathane jacket from the elephant tusk. Figure 27. Top: Nigel Larkin working on the conservation and preparation for display of the elephant tusk from site RUW0044, Ruwais. Bottom: Section through the tusk and platform to show the supporting plaster and jesmonite base. Figure 28. Nigel Larkin working on the conservation of the elephant tusk from ‘Elephant Hill’, site RUW0048, Ruwais. Note the elephant jaws from site RUW0013 in the right foreground. Figure 29. Location of the two Mleisa and Niqa trackway sites. Figure 30. View of the plain at Mleisa. Figure 31. View of the main trackway at Mleisa. Figure 32. Basic measurements used to describe a track, after Thulborn (1990). Figure 33. Top: Measuring the shoulder height of a modern Asian elephant at Blackpool Zoo. Bottom: Walking the elephant on raked sand to record measurements on its tracks. Figure 34. Comparison of the track measurements between modern Asian elephants from Blackpool Zoo with three examples from the Mleisa site. Figure 35. Footprint of a five-toed animal discovered at Niqa. Figure 36. Elephant (Stegotetrabelodon syrticus) mandible from Site S6, Shuwaihat (Catalogue: ADIAS 503). Figure 37. Elephant (Stegotetrabelodon syrticus) skull from Site S6, Shuwaihat (Catalogue: ADIAS 502). Figure 38. Elephant (Stegotetrabelodon syrticus) femur from Site S6, Shuwaihat (Catalogue: ADIAS 506). Figure 39. Elephant (Stegotetrabelodon syrticus) upper tusk from Site RUW0044, Ruwais (Catalogue: ADIAS 1923). - 8 - Figure 40. Antelope (Tragoportax cyrenaicus) skull from Site T2, Tarif (Catalogue: ADIAS 442). Figure 41. Hippo (Hexaprotodon aff. sahabiensis) mandible from Site S4, Shuwaihat (Catalogue: ADIAS 481). Figure 42. Equid (Hipparion sp.) teeth from Site JD5, Jebel Dhanna (Catalogue: ADIAS 144 and 676). Figure 43. Hyena (Hyena sp.) mandible from Site JD3, Jebel Dhanna (Catalogue: ADIAS 294). Figure 44. Wolverine (Plesiogulo praecocidens) mandible from Site H4, Hamra (Catalogue: ADIAS 45).