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Saudi Culture Ministry Signs Agreement with Snapchat

The agreement was signed by Hamed bin Mohammed Fayez, Deputy Minister of Culture, and Ben Schwerin, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Snap Inc. SPA
The agreement was signed by Hamed bin Mohammed Fayez, Deputy Minister of Culture, and Ben Schwerin, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Snap Inc. SPA
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Saudi Culture Ministry Signs Agreement with Snapchat

The agreement was signed by Hamed bin Mohammed Fayez, Deputy Minister of Culture, and Ben Schwerin, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Snap Inc. SPA
The agreement was signed by Hamed bin Mohammed Fayez, Deputy Minister of Culture, and Ben Schwerin, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Snap Inc. SPA

Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud has overseen the signing of an agreement with Snap Inc. in the presence of its CEO, Evan Spiegel, at Jax District in Ad-Diriyah.

The agreement was signed by Hamed bin Mohammed Fayez, Deputy Minister of Culture, and Ben Schwerin, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Snap Inc.

The agreement comes as part of the Ministry’s efforts to build partnerships with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to benefit the nation’s cultural scene, including the maximum leverage of cutting-edge technologies in this critical domain which represents a core component of Vision 2030’s Quality of Life program, besides collaborating to implement social service programs, adopting Augmented Reality (AR) solutions across the Ministry’s portfolio of events and initiatives, as well as upskilling local talent to master Snapchat’s unique offerings.

Snap Inc. has chosen the Jax cultural district in Diriyah to set up its Saudi base and a content creator studio. Jax district is the Kingdom’s trendiest creative hub boasting galleries, studios, and capabilities that incubate art and artists alike while inspiring the nation’s cultural movement.

The company will invest its digital technologies into local cultural programs and events besides supporting the cultural sector in line with the Ministry’s strategic plans to develop an interactive cultural experience on social media platforms and promote its creative content across 16 cultural sub-sectors.

Snapchat is a pioneering platform in the Kingdom with around 20 million active users.

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Varieties

'Dinosaur Highway' Tracks Dating Back 166 Million Years are Discovered in England

In this undated photo provided by the University of Birmingham on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, work underway as five extensive trackways that formed part of a "dinosaur highway" are uncovered, at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. (University of Birmingham via AP)
In this undated photo provided by the University of Birmingham on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, work underway as five extensive trackways that formed part of a "dinosaur highway" are uncovered, at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. (University of Birmingham via AP)
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'Dinosaur Highway' Tracks Dating Back 166 Million Years are Discovered in England

In this undated photo provided by the University of Birmingham on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, work underway as five extensive trackways that formed part of a "dinosaur highway" are uncovered, at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. (University of Birmingham via AP)
In this undated photo provided by the University of Birmingham on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, work underway as five extensive trackways that formed part of a "dinosaur highway" are uncovered, at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. (University of Birmingham via AP)

A worker digging up clay in a southern England limestone quarry noticed unusual bumps that led to the discovery of a “dinosaur highway” and nearly 200 tracks that date back 166 million years, researchers said Thursday.

The extraordinary find made after a team of more than 100 people excavated the Dewars Farm Quarry, in Oxfordshire, in June expands upon previous paleontology work in the area and offers greater insights into the Middle Jurassic period, researchers at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham said.

“These footprints offer an extraordinary window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions, and the tropical environment they inhabited,” said Kirsty Edgar, a micropaleontology professor at the University of Birmingham, The AP reported.

Four of the sets of tracks that make up the so-called highway show paths taken by gigantic, long-necked, herbivores called sauropods, thought to be Cetiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to nearly 60 feet (18 meters) in length. A fifth set belonged to the Megalosaurus, a ferocious 9-meter predator that left a distinctive triple-claw print and was the first dinosaur to be scientifically named two centuries ago.

An area where the tracks cross raises questions about possible interactions between the carnivores and herbivores.

“Scientists have known about and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found," said Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Nearly 30 years ago, 40 sets of footprints discovered in a limestone quarry in the area were considered one of the world's most scientifically important dinosaur track sites. But that area is mostly inaccessible now and there's limited photographic evidence because it predated the use of digital cameras and drones to record the findings.

The group that worked at the site this summer took more than 20,000 digital images and used drones to create 3-D models of the prints. The trove of documentation will aid future studies and could shed light on the size of the dinosaurs, how they walked and the speed at which they moved.

“The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaur’s feet squelched in and out," said Duncan Murdock, an earth scientist at the Oxford museum. "Along with other fossils like burrows, shells and plants we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment the dinosaurs walked through.”

The findings will be shown at a new exhibit at the museum and also broadcast on the BBC's “Digging for Britain” program next week.