Fossil Sirenia from the Pleistocene of Qatar: new questions about the antiquity of sea cows in the Gulf Region.

One of the largest and least documented populations of dugongs () 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.