ABU DHABI, Nov 30, 2002 (WAM) --Abu Dhabi's refinery company, TAKREER, part of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ADNOC, group, is to support research into fossils millions of years old that have been found at the proposed Ruwais site for its new Hazardous Waste Treatment Plant, it is announced today. The presence of the fossils on the site, close to the main Abu Dhabi to As Sila'a highway, was first recognised in April during a preliminary ecological survey undertaken by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS. According to a report submitted to TAKREER, the fossils date back to the Late Miocene period, around five to six million years ago. At the time, much of what is now the Western Region of Abu Dhabi was a fertile land with large rivers running through it, similar to the savannahs of East Africa today. Among fossils identified during the preliminary ADIAS survey work were skull fragments, jawbones and teeth from an early species of crocodile, fragments of the teeth of ancestors of horses, pieces of fossilised eggshell from a giant ancestor of the ostrich, and, perhaps most important of all, what appears to be the skull of an ancient hippopotamus. Other fossils recovered include bones from a wide size range of animals from large elephants down to turtle and fish bone fragments. Fossils of the same period have also been found elsewhere in the Western Region, at Jebel Dhanna and on the island of Shuweihat, for example. Previous studies by palaeontologists (fossil experts) from London's Natural History Museum and from Yale University in the United States, have shown that the Western Region of Abu Dhabi has the best fossils of land and river animals of the Late Miocene period to be found anywhere in the world. With support from TAKREER, ADIAS is now undertaking further detailed work on the site. This involves a detailed survey of the site, now under way, and planned excavation of key items early next year. The finds and the scientific data will then be incorporated into the Abu Dhabi Environmental Database, currently being developed by the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, ERWDA, in association with ADIAS and other bodies. MORE WAM-VV
