Tag Page dugong

Tiny Sea Cows Ruled the Gulf?!

Turns out, dugongs aren’t the OG seagrass gardeners in the Arabian Gulf. Scientists just ID’d a new ancient sea cow species, Salwasiren qatarensis, that was munching on seagrass and shaping the ecosystem 21 million years ago! These little guys were way smaller than today’s dugongs and even had tiny tusks. Fossil finds in Qatar show this area’s been a sea cow hotspot forever—just with different ‘cows’ over time. Nature’s ultimate lawnmowers, right? #Science #fossilfinds #dugong