100 Years Ago: Egyptian Fossil Discovery

EGYPTIAN FOSSILS— “Prof. Henry F. Osborn, who directed the expedition of the American Museum of Natural History to the Fayum Desert of Egypt, is just now placing on exhibition one of the most important and significant finds there, the skull of the giant Arsinoitherium,


These photos depict the skull of the extinct Arsinoitherium


The expedition of the American Museum of Natural History to the Fayum Desert in Egypt has brought back one of the most important and significant finds, in the shape of the skull of the giant Arsinoitherium, one of the most extraordinary land mammals of ancient Africa, or of the whole known fossil world. This remarkable beast is entirely new to science and paleontologists. Its existence was unknown and undreamed of until a few years ago.


The dominating and all-powerful feature of the Arsinoitherium was the long pair of sharp-pointed horns, protruding upward and outward above the nose for nearly two feet, an appendage both dangerous and fantastic. Undoubtedly no contemporary could cope with and withstand a mad rush and furious charge from an animal thus armed. Arsinoitherium was the brute king of the Fayum during Eocene times, some two or three million years ago. The narrow muzzle of the head indicated that the animal did not graze, but browsed upon the low bushes and herbage. Our photographs show the front and side views of the Arsinoitherium skull now in the Cairo Museum, found by the Egyptian Geological Survey only a few years back."