51�Թ���

DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY - MAY 22: 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 Diyarbakir province, which features around 2,000 endemic animals including a hermit ibis, giant reptile and leopard carp. The nummulite was found by Busra Bektas, a molecular biology student at Dicle University in Diyarbakir, 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. Bektas, 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. (Footage by Omer Yasin Ergin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)