Fossil Sea Cow from Al Maszhabiya: Axis, Second Cervical Vertebra (C2)

This 3D model shows part of the skeleton of Salwasiren qatarensis, a 21-million-year-old species of fossil sea cow discovered in Qatar. The fossils of Salwasiren were collected from the Al Maszhabiya bonebed, which is exposed throughout southwest Qatar, especially in a protected area called the Southern Reserve. Its scientific name honors both the State of Qatar and the Bay of Salwa, a body of water close to where the fossils were found. The coastlines of the Bay of Salwa are shared by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar. The bay supports herds of dugongs, the distant modern relatives of Salwasiren. Dugongs, like manatees from the Americas, are herbivorous marine mammals that eat plants on the seafloor. Salwasiren weighed about as much as an adult panda or a heavyweight boxer, although its body size was relatively small compared to other fossil and living sea cows, including dugongs, which can weigh much more. Today’s dugongs use their tusks to excavate seagrass roots and create pits in the seafloor, which makes them ecosystem engineers because their activities support the health of seagrass ecosystems. It is likely that Salwasiren occupied this ecological role in ancient seagrass ecosystems of the Early Miocene.