Egypt has been known for its bone-dry deserts throughout history, but once upon a time, it was actually part of a tropical sea that was filled with sharks. Records of an ancient marine ecosystem across Egypt and the rest of North Africa have been preserved in rock layers dating back to the Late Cretaceous. One notable site in Egypt’s Southwestern Desert contains a wide array of shark teeth, leading researchers to call it a “shark graveyard.”
A new study published in Cretaceous Research describes the discovery of 14 teeth representing at least five extinct shark species, two of which haven’t been reported in Egypt before. This collection, unearthed at the Duwi Formation in Egypt’s Abu-Tartur Plateau, adds to the two types of mackerel sharks that were previously identified in the area.
This shark graveyard is now shedding light on the astounding diversity in marine life that lived in North Africa back when it was submerged under an ancient ocean around 100.5 million to 66 million years ago.
Egypt's Ancient Sea
During the Late Cretaceous, Egypt had already been covered by the prehistoric Tethys Sea as a result of rising sea levels, according to a 2025 study in the Journal of African Earth Sciences. Over time, sediments accumulated in the sea, creating phosphate beds that carry the fossil remains of marine organisms.
Explore All OptionsThe phosphate beds spanning the Duwi Formation contain evidence of fish, sea turtles, and marine reptiles. Most intriguing, however, is the sheer amount of shark fossils.
Previously, researchers had found fossilized teeth from two types of mackerel shark (also known as lamniform sharks). Even more extinct sharks, though, awaited them.
Finding Teeth in a Shark Graveyard
In the new study, researchers describe finding 14 more fossil teeth at the Duwi Formation. The teeth belonged to five extinct shark species.
The fossil teeth came in different shapes and sizes; some were long and slender, while others had serrations that would’ve been great for slicing. The teeth also varied in color, ranging from black to gray and yellow. The researchers write that this was likely influenced by the conditions of the phosphate ore layers in which they were embedded, which were altered by chemical weathering, rendering them different colors.
Two of these species identified from the teeth, Serratolamna serrata and Squalicorax bassanii, haven’t been reported in Egypt before.
In addition, the researchers write that one of the specimens likely represents the first record of the species Scapanorhynchus raphiodon in Africa. Members of the genus Scapanorhynchus — comprising a group of mackerel sharks that lived during the Cretaceous — had an extended snout that projected forward well ahead of its jaws, according to Prehistoric-Wildlife. Scapanorhynchus is considered to be an extinct relative of the living goblin shark, sharing similarities in their teeth and snouts.
A Prosperous Marine Community
The shark graveyard shows how North Africa was home to a diverse marine community back when the Tethys Sea existed. Marine life in the region was supported by nutrient-rich tropical waters, setting the stage for a vast food web.
The abundance of phosphate may have played a role in promoting a thriving ecosystem; oceanic phosphate levels are known to drive the productivity of phytoplankton, the food source that acts as the pillar for the whole marine biosphere, according to Springer Nature.
The Tethys Sea eventually closed by around 50 million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era, when continental fragments of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana (India, Arabia, and parts of Italy, the Balkans, Greece, and Turkey) collided with the rest of the Eurasian landmass, according to Britannica. The sea’s closing marked a major moment in geologic history, forming major mountain ranges from the Alps down to the Himalayas.
While the sharks found at the Duwi Formation are long gone from this world, their remains have revealed a time in Egypt’s history when marine life once flourished.
Read More: Long-Lost Megalodon Fossils Confirm the Giant Shark Could Reach 80 Feet Long
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from a study published in Cretaceous Research: Egyptian shark graveyard: New Late Cretaceous Lamniform shark Assemblage from Duwi Formation of Abu-Tartur Area, Southwestern desert, Egypt
- This article references information from a study published in the Journal of African Earth Sciences: Paleoenvironmental and sea level changes across the Paleocene-lower Eocene interval at the central and southwestern Sinai, Egypt
- This article references information from Prehistoric-Wildlife: Scapanorhynchus
- This article references information from Springer Nature: The geologic history of marine phosphate
- This article references information from Britannica: Tethys Sea
