A scientific journal revealed an amazing discovery found in the Egyptian desert, which unveils very strange creatures that were able to withstand high temperatures that a creature cannot live in its environment now.
The specialized scientific journal “Geology” published the details of a new discovery that researchers found in the desert in eastern Egypt, indicating the presence of fish that were able to almost stand the boiling point.
Creatures living in waters of 95 ° C
Researchers have discovered 56 million-year-old fish fossils that show the fish were able to live in seas with temperatures approaching 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to the study, the fossils were found in dark gray shale at a site in the eastern desert known as Ras Gharib near the Red Sea, about 200 miles southeast of Cairo.
12 groups of exotic fish, some of which live now
Scientists have found more than a dozen groups of different types of bony fish from that era, including acanthomorphs (percomorphs), a group that includes a group of varieties of fish.
Fish survived in almost boiling seas, 56 million-year-old fossils found in Egypt prove https://t.co/78aiLrzAz0
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) May 26, 2021
Other fish found include the moonfish, where more than 60 specimens were found, as well as deep-sea fish and a predatory species known as (bonytongues), which still have living relatives of their genus.
According to the study, these fish currently live in parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
The fish lived in a harsh environment
During the Earth’s extreme thermal age, which scientists call the Paleocene and Eocene, and it is also called the PETM event for short, our planet witnessed in this era an unprecedented global warming of temperatures.
“The impact of a Beat event on life at that time was of great significance,” University of Michigan paleontologist Matt Friedman said in a statement. And he continues, “But there is a big gap in our understanding of how animals respond in the tropics (close to the equator), because this region was not well discovered in fossils,” according to the “Daily Mail”.
“On the basis of the scant evidence we have of fish – we confirm that this Egyptian site offers the first peek from the tropics – it appears that they (the fish) have survived the Piethm period quite well,” Friedman said.
In turn, Sana Al-Sayed, the study’s lead author, explained that the newly discovered fossils give researchers the first clear picture of how bony fish survive and thrive during the pit period, which sheds light on a number of fish lineage and their environment.
new Eocene fossil flatfish from Bolca
A new genus and species of percomorph fish (“stem pleuronectiform”)
from the Eocene of Bolca in northern Italyhttps://t.co/UTobSIeIwG pic.twitter.com/ltB9GccdaV— Francesco Santini (@fsantini2015) December 12, 2020
“The available fossil evidence does not indicate a large-scale crisis among marine fish at that time,” Al-Sayed said.
Friedman said ancient fossils could give researchers new insights into how the creatures are able to cope with changing weather patterns and how they interact with each other.
“The impacts on ecosystems involve the interaction of multiple groups … the survival of one group in isolation should not be taken as evidence that climate change is something to be ignored,” he explained.