- Title: Egypt paleontologist unearths planet's secrets in web series
- Date: 4th November 2020
- Summary: MANSOURA, EGYPT (OCTOBER 28, 2020) (REUTERS) PALAEONTOLOGIST, SHOROUK AL-ASHKAR, WALKING INTO FOSSILS' DEPARTMENT AT MANSOURA UNIVERSITY AL-ASHKAR PICKING UP MOST RECENT DISCOVERY FROM SHELF AND MOVING IT TO TABLE SAYING (Arabic): "THIS IS OUR GREAT DISCOVERY" VARIOUS OF AL-ASHKAR WITH FOSSIL ON TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALAEONTOLOGIST, DR. SHOROUK AL-ASHKAR, SAYING: "Th
- Embargoed: 18th November 2020 10:54
- Keywords: Egypt Fossils Paleontology Web Series
- Location: MANSOURA AND FAYOUM, EGYPT
- City: MANSOURA AND FAYOUM, EGYPT
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA001D35L00L
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Shorouk al-Ashkar loves nothing more than to dig into sand and fossilised rock to find the remains of animals who roamed the earth millennia ago.
The paleontologist's passion about fossils drives her to not only teach at Egypt's Mansoura university and join digging expeditions, she also started her own web series, uncovering what she refers to as "the earth's secrets".
"The earth speaks and I translate its tales," she said.
Al-Ashkar is part of a team at the university who actively organises trips to different locations in Egypt's desert, rich in fossilised remains sometimes trapped in sandstone formations.
She covers everything from the discovery of vertebrate fossils, evolution, the popular Jurassic era and diseases prevalent at the time.
Last spring, the team uncovered the skull of a carnivorous ancestor of modern-day hyenas and the remains of snake bones estimated to be over 30 million years old.
In 2018, a team from Mansoura university made one of Egypt's most significant discoveries in recent history of a roughly 80 million year-old dinosaur found in the Sahara Desert Oasis.
The remains were considered the most complete of any mainland African land vertebrate, according to Paleontologist Hesham Sallam, also part of the Mansoura University team.
(Production: Sherif Fahmy, Seham Eloraby) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None