PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
One of the largest and least documented populations of dugongs (Dugong dugon) resides in the coastal waters of the United Arab Emirates, and waters surrounding Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar. The archaeological record of dugongs in the Gulf Region is abundant, but little is known about their fossil record in the region. Here we report an isolated sirenian rib fragment from the Futaisi Member of the Fuwayrit Formation near the town of Al Ruwais, in northern Qatar. The Fuwayrit Formation is a marine Pleistocene deposit exposed onshore in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Based on the correlative dating of the basal Futaisi Member with other onshore platforms, the rib fragment is approximately 125 ka. We propose that this isolated rib (likely the first rib from the right side) belongs to Dugongidae, with strong similarities to extant Dugong. We cannot, however, eliminate the possibility that it belongs to an extinct taxon, especially given its similarities with other fossil dugongid material from both Qatar and elsewhere in the world. Aside from reflecting the presence of Gulf seagrass communities in the Pleistocene, this occurrence also suggests that different (and potentially multiple) lineages of sirenians inhabited the Gulf Region in the geologic past.
摘要：
儒艮人口最多和记录最少的人之一（Dugongdugon）居住在阿拉伯联合酋长国的沿海水域，和沙特阿拉伯周围的水域，巴林,卡塔尔。海湾地区儒艮考古记录丰富,但是对他们在该地区的化石记录知之甚少。在这里，我们报告了来自AlRuwais镇附近Fuwayrit地层的Futaisi成员的孤立的Sirenian肋骨碎片，在卡塔尔北部。Fuwayrit地层是在卡塔尔和阿拉伯联合酋长国陆上暴露的海洋更新世沉积物。基于基础Futaisi成员与其他陆上平台的相关年代，肋骨碎片大约是125ka.我们建议这个孤立的肋骨（可能是右侧的第一个肋骨）属于Dugongidae，与现存的儒艮有很强的相似性。我们不能,然而,消除了它属于灭绝类群的可能性，特别是考虑到它与卡塔尔和世界其他地方的其他化石材料的相似性。除了反映了更新世海湾海草群落的存在，这种情况也表明，在过去的地质时期，海湾地区居住着不同的（并且可能是多个）锡兰人血统。
