Today the Arabian Gulf supports large numbers of dugongs, marine mammals related to manatees that feed on seagrass and leave trails in the sediment as they graze. Newly examined fossils from Qatar show that sea cows living more than 20 million years ago shaped their environments in much the same way. The findings, published December 10 in the journal PeerJ, come from a partnership between scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Qatar Museums. The team also identified a previously unknown species of ancient sea cow that…
