Hesham Sallam

Hesham Sallam (Arabic: هشام سلام‎; born 1975) is an Egyptian paleontologist and the founder of the Mansoura University Paleontology Center (MUVP), the first vertebrate paleontology program in the Middle East. He works as an associate professor at the American University in Cairo and Mansoura University. Sallam led the discovery and description of Mansourasaurus shahinae, a species of sauropod dinosaur from Egypt, which has improved understanding of the prehistory of Africa during the latest Cretaceous period. His work has helped popularize paleontology in Egypt.

Hesham Sallam
هشام سلام
NationalityEgyptian
EducationMansoura University, Oxford University
Known forMansourasaurus
Scientific career
FieldsVertebrate Paleontology
InstitutionsAmerican University in Cairo Mansoura University
Theses
Doctoral advisorErik Seiffert; Stephen Hesselbo

Biography

Hesham Sallam was born in 1975 in Sharkia, Egypt.[1] He received a bachelor's degree in geology from Mansoura University in 1997. He was a visiting scholar at Stony Brook University from 2008 to 2010,[1] during which time he began planning what would become the MUVP.[2] He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2010, which made him the first Egyptian to have earned a doctorate in vertebrate paleontology in several decades.[3] After completing his Ph.D., he returned to Egypt, where he became a professor at Mansoura University and founded the MUVP. Sallam is an associate professor at the American University in Cairo and Mansoura University.[4]

In December 2013, Sallam and several graduate students found the partial skeleton of a dinosaur at the Dakhla Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt.[5][6] In February 2014 they returned to the site to excavate the specimen, which took 21 days.[7] Sallam led a team of Egyptian and American paleontologists in describing the specimen, which was announced as belonging to a new species of sauropod, Mansourasaurus shahinae, in January 2018. The holotype specimen of Mansourasaurus is the most complete fossil of a terrestrial animal from the post-Cenomanian Cretaceous in mainland Africa, a period of nearly 30 million years which otherwise has a poorly-known fossil record in Africa.[8] Mansourasaurus is closely related to European species, providing evidence that Africa was not entirely geographically isolated during the Late Cretaceous. The discovery attracted considerable media attention and has helped popularize paleontology in Egypt.[2]

Sallam has been described as one of the most significant paleontologists in the Middle East.[9] The MUVP is the first Middle Eastern research program dedicated to vertebrate paleontology.[3] While fossils have been found in Egypt for over a century, prior to Sallam's founding of the MUVP, vertebrate paleontology research in Egypt was primarily conducted by foreigners.[9] Sallam hopes to change that, using the MUVP both for public outreach and training the next generation of Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists.[3] One of Sallam's students, Sanaa El-Sayed, is the first woman from the Middle East to have been the lead author on an internationally-published vertebrate paleontology research paper.[10]

Selected Publications
  • Sallam, Hesham M.; Gorscak, Eric; O'Connor, Patrick M.; El-Dawoudi, Iman A.; El-Sayed, Sanaa; Saber, Sara; Kora, Mahmoud A.; Sertich, Joseph J. W.; Sieffert, Erik R.; Lamanna, Matthew C. (2018-01-29). "New Egyptian sauropod reveals Late Cretaceous dinosaur dispersal between Europe and Africa". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2 (3): 445–451. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0455-5. PMID 29379183. S2CID 3375335.

References
  1. "2010 (Preparator's Grant) Hesham Mohamed Sallam". Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
  2. Tarlach, Gemma (2018-12-31). "How paleontologists are finding fossils in surprising places". Discover.
  3. El-Said, Mohammed (2018-01-10). "Hesham Sallam tells Egypt's tale through fossil remains". Daily News Egypt.
  4. "Hesham Sallam". The American University in Cairo.
  5. Tarek Abd El-Galil (2018-02-13). "Egyptian team's dinosaur find is a long-sought link". Al-Fanar Media.
  6. "Rare dinosaur discovery made in Egypt". CBC.
  7. Al-Youm, Al-Masry (2018-01-30). "The whole story behind newly discovered Egyptian dinosaur Mansourasaurus". Egypt Independent.
  8. Sallam, Hesham M.; Gorscak, Eric; O'Connor, Patrick M.; El-Dawoudi, Iman A.; El-Sayed, Sanaa; Saber, Sara; Kora, Mahmoud A.; Sertich, Joseph J. W.; Sieffert, Erik R.; Lamanna, Matthew C. (2018-01-29). "New Egyptian sauropod reveals Late Cretaceous dinosaur dispersal between Europe and Africa". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2 (3): 445–451. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0455-5. PMID 29379183. S2CID 3375335.
  9. Seidler, Christoph (2020-01-09). "Paläontologie in Ägypten: Vom Glück, einen Saurier zu finden". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  10. Tarlach, Gemma (2017-05-03). "Nextgen Paleontologist: Egypt's Catfish Hunter Sanaa El-Sayed". Discover.
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