Continental Movement and Ancient Arabian Fauna

Just before the dinosaurs became extinct, 70 million years ago, the oceanic crust in what are now the foothills of the Hajar Mountains emerged above sea level. Around the islands formed by this event shallow water, marine carbonates were deposited. This habitat supported a unique and diverse assemblage of invertebrate animals ranging from echinoids and corals to bizarre molluscs called rudists. Their fossilised remains can now be found at Jebel Huwayyah, Jebel Rawdah and Jebel Buhays.

About 23 million years ago, a land bridge, possibly located between Qatar and the coastal Fars region of Iran was formed. Land animals from both Africa and Asia had the opportunity for intercontinental dispersal via Arabia and it is probable that these changes to Middle East geography also changed the flow of river systems in northwestern Africa and in Mesopotamia allowing animals in freshwater habitats, such as fish, turtles, crocodiles and aquatic mammals, to disperse into new ecosystems. The remains of these animals can be found, but rarely, in the Western Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Consequently, the United Arab Emirates is palaeontologically unique for it has the finest locations for discovering Middle East Cretaceous marine invertebrates and late Miocene Arabian continental vertebrate fossils.