50-million year-old nummulite exhibited in Turkey's Diyarbakır

A recently discovered 50-million-year-old nummulite, a large lens-shaped single-celled marine organism (foraminifera), was put on display at a museum in Turkey's southeastern province. The fossil was exhibited at Zoology Museum in Diyarbakır province, which features around 2,000 endemic animals including a hermit ibis, giant reptile and leopard carp. The nummulite was found by Büşra Bektaş, a molecular biology student at Dicle University in Diyarbakır, during a family picnic in southeastern Siirt province. The term 'nummulite' means 'coin' in Latin. 'Many areas including Anatolia [peninsula of land that today constitutes the Asian portion of Turkey] was underwater previously. When Anatolia rose, fossils appeared,' Ali Satar, a zoology professor at Dicle University, told Anadolu Agency. 'These areas, where fossils exist, could not be able to be searched due to terror incidents. When we do a search in the area, we will find many fossils,' Satar added. Bektaş, who found the nummulite, expressed her excitement about finding such a fossil. 'There are many such things there. I want there to be researched. Because those areas were underwater before. Existence of such organisms in those areas makes me excited,' she said.