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‘Remarkable’ Egyptian Presence in Ramadaniyat Exhibition at Jeddah Art Atelier

Painting by Saudi Artist Marwan Abdulhalim Radwi at the Jeddah Art Atelier.
Painting by Saudi Artist Marwan Abdulhalim Radwi at the Jeddah Art Atelier.
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‘Remarkable’ Egyptian Presence in Ramadaniyat Exhibition at Jeddah Art Atelier

Painting by Saudi Artist Marwan Abdulhalim Radwi at the Jeddah Art Atelier.
Painting by Saudi Artist Marwan Abdulhalim Radwi at the Jeddah Art Atelier.

The 14th edition of the Ramadaniyat Exhibition opened at the Jeddah Art Atelier, on April 3, with a remarkable Egyptian presence displaying over 60 works inspired by the spirit of Islamic civilization and arts, reflecting various intellectual views, and embodying the Islamic architecture and decorations. The artworks include pieces of Ramadan-inspired Arabic calligraphy and some Quran verses.

“The exhibition is running until the end of the holy month and represents an annual tradition through which the Jeddah Art Atelier brings the works of the best Arab artists to the city,” said Hisham Kandil, director of Jeddah Art Atelier. “Ramadaniyat features a wide variety of works that revolve around the spirituality of the holy month, the popular folklore in its different elements and values, and some modern topics. The event also includes a cultural evening hosting many artists and critics,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Displaying over 150 works, the exhibition boasts a painting by Esteemed Artist Abdulhalim Radwi, pioneer of the contemporary art movement in Saudi Arabia, and four works by the late prominent Artist Fahad Al-Hejailan, in addition to the works of an elite of Saudi artists including Abdullah Hamas, Abdullah Nawawi, Abdullah Idris, Fahd Khalif, Mohammed al-Rabat, Abdulrahman al-Maghrabi, Mohammed al-Shehri, Mohammed al-Jad, Bassem al-Sharki, Mohammed al-A’jam, Fauzia Abdullatif, Ola Hijazi, Sahar Anani, and Thamer al-Rabat.

According to Kandil, this year’s edition of the exhibition marks a “powerful comeback of Artist Marwan Abdulhalim Radwi, the eldest son of Abdulhalim Radwi, after a long break.”

From Egypt, Artist Izzedine Naguib takes part with works that highlight the Egyptian values and heritage, depicting the face of modest human and nature. “Ramadaniyat is one of many great exhibitions that the Jeddah Art Atelier insists on holding every year to celebrate the holy month,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

This year’s edition is witnessing a remarkable participation of artists known for their unique creative personalities in the art circles in Egypt and the Arab world, according to Zakariya Ahmed al-Kadi, photography professor and former vice dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Minia University (Upper Egypt), who said he is happy to be part of the event.

His works reflect the ambiances of Ramadan in the popular Egyptian community, and recalls details from the popular Egyptian childhood such as the swings and clowns, in addition to landscapes of houses and lanes in old neighborhoods.

As usual, his paintings show a significant human and expressive charge that focuses on the popular Egyptian heritage. “I celebrate this heritage because it is an integral part of our national identity, and has many inspiring elements,” Kadi said.

Egyptian society celebrates many social and spiritual events in joyful ambiances, which has always prompted artists to depict them in their artistic expressions.

“In ancient times, Egyptians used to join the Sufi convoys known for their flags and chants. Even nowadays, we still see carnivals and celebrations in the streets with lights and decorations, and around mosques with their domes and minarets surrounded by colorful lights. On the spiritual level, worshipers flock to perform Tarawih prayers, and neighbors exchange plates of sweets and food,” he explained.

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Dutch Zookeeper Dies after Leopard Attacked her in the Animal's Enclosure

This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)
This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)
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Dutch Zookeeper Dies after Leopard Attacked her in the Animal's Enclosure

This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)
This photograph shows the exterior of the Safaripark Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek, on October 27, 2026. (Photo by ROB ENGELAAR / ANP / AFP)

A longtime zookeeper at a safari park in the Netherlands died Tuesday from injuries she suffered when she was attacked by a leopard in its enclosure over the weekend.

The Beekse Bergen Safari Park said in a statement that the woman, whose name has been withheld in accordance with Dutch privacy law, had passed away after she suffered serious wounds to her head and neck on Saturday while working in an enclosure with two male Persian leopards.

“Her passing deeply affects us all, and we sympathize intensely with her family, friends, and loved ones,” the zoo in the southern town of Hilvarenbeek said in a statement, which was made together with her family.

The woman began working at the zoo when she was 17 and spent nearly all of her 40-year career there.

An investigation is underway to determine why the woman was in the enclosure with the leopards. Zoo staff are typically not permitted to be in the same space as predatory animals, The Associated Press reported.

According to the zoo, the woman was able to alert colleagues via a walkie-talkie that she had been hurt. An ambulance and a trauma helicopter were dispatched to the park at around 11 a.m. local time on Saturday.

The woman underwent emergency surgery, but her condition worsened Sunday evening and the zoo said they did not expect her to survive. The safari park said an area in the park will be set up where condolences can be left.

Varieties

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Named after British Dad

An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS
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Newly Discovered Dinosaur Named after British Dad

An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the ankylosaur Spicomellus afer shows the animal with the most extensive armor of any known dinosaur. Spicomellus lived about 165 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. REUTERS

A new species and genus of dinosaur has been named after a dad in Surrey, in the UK, according to BBC.

Paludohadros proudlovii - an iguanodontian - was named in honor of the late Will Proudlove, who managed the Ewhurst brick and roof tile works where the dinosaur was discovered.

Proudlove passed away at the age of 35, shortly before the dinosaur's fossil was found in 2001 and donated to the Natural History Museum.

His wife Rachel told BBC Radio Surrey there was a history of finding dinosaur remains where the father-of-two worked.

“He was quite fascinated by this,” she said.

Each time a layer of clay was removed from the quarry, Will checked if there was anything that looked like dinosaur fossils, Rachel added.

Rachel said the dinosaur being named after Will - who worked his way up the ranks to become manager - was a “huge” honor.

“It's very exciting,” she told the BBC. “It's a great legacy for my husband to be remembered by. [We’re] absolutely thrilled.”

The remains at the Ewhurst works belong to a member of the iguanodontians – a group of dinosaurs known for their thumb spikes, according to the Natural History Museum.

Historically, it added that iguanodontians found in southern England were considered to be either Iguanodon or its smaller relative, mantellisaurus.

However, a detailed redescription of the latter by Natural History Museum scientists in 2023 has allowed key differences to be identified.

This has led to several newly named iguanodontians in recent years, including brighstoneus, comptonatus, the sail-backed istiorachis and now paludohadros.

The four-legged herbivore lived around 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Period, the Natural History Museum said.

At the time, southern England would have been covered in muddy wetlands - helping give the dinosaur its name, as palus means swamp in Latin, it added.

At around five meters long and around 1.5 to two tons in weight, the paludohadros proudlovii would have been a similar size to a rhino when it died.

Varieties

Ancient Armored Bottom-feeder is First Seagoing Amphibian

An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS
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Ancient Armored Bottom-feeder is First Seagoing Amphibian

An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS
An artistic reconstruction of the Triassic Period marine amphibian, Gerrothorax maritimus, seen suction-feeding on a coelacanth at the bottom of the ocean, in a handout image released on October 26, 2026. Chen Geng, Guizhou University/Handout via REUTERS

Amphibians rely on their permeable skin for the crucial functions of breathing and drinking, a wonderful adaptation in freshwater that is subverted by the salt in seawater. As a result, there has been no known amphibian — extinct or extant — with a fully marine lifestyle. Until now, that is.

Researchers have discovered in China's Guizhou Province two nearly complete skeletons of an amphibian that lived in the sea about 237 million years ago during the Triassic Period, with a flat, disc-shaped and armored body and a wide mouth indicative of a bottom-dwelling suction feeder that ambushed its prey.

The creature, named Gerrothorax maritimus, measured about 30 inches (75 cm) long and predated the dinosaurs.

"The most important finding is that there was an early amphibian that lived in the sea full-time," said paleobiologist Ryosuke Motani of the University of California, Davis, one of the leaders of the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

It was unearthed in rocks that formed from ocean sediment, and was found near fossils of an ichthyosaur — a type of marine reptile — called Guizhouichthyosaurus that was about ⁠23 feet (7 meters) long. ⁠Ichthyosaurs were the apex marine predators of the time, and justified the amphibian's bony body armor.

Its use of suction feeding is suggested by the shape of its mouth and the structure of its throat. Suction feeding occurs when an aquatic animal quickly expands its mouth cavity to create a drop in pressure, drawing water and prey inside.

"The skull is flat and wide with a large mouth, having many small conical teeth," paleontologist and study co-author Da-yong Jiang of Peking University in China said, according to Reuters.

"It is a bottom animal, a suction feeder that lived on a muddy to silty seafloor. It would likely capture anything that swam by, such as fish, worms and maybe cephalopods," Jiang ⁠said, referring to squid relatives.

The wobbegong, a bottom-dwelling and suction-feeding shark of comparable size, is a good present-day analog, Motani said.

The researchers said Gerrothorax maritimus evolved from armored freshwater ancestors. Fossils of a closely related armored freshwater amphibian were previously discovered.

There are more than 8,000 species of living amphibians such as frogs, salamanders and legless caecilians. Some can withstand brackish water — saltwater and freshwater mixing where bodies of water like rivers meet the sea.

But less than 2% exhibit any salt tolerance, and none live in fully marine environments. In addition, no previous amphibian fossil indicated a marine existence.

An amphibian's skin is multifunctional, acting among other things as the main gateway for breathing and water intake.

"Their skin, however, does not work the same way in seawater," Motani said.

"When a frog swims in seawater, it loses its body water because the seawater sucks out the body water through the permeable skin through osmotic pressure. It cannot drink water either for the same reason. As a result, it loses body weight and will have to rest in ⁠freshwater to recover. This key feature ⁠prevents amphibians from becoming fully marine."

Gerrothorax maritimus was able to do so through a phenomenon called exaptation, in which a biological trait that evolved for one function is repurposed for a different function.

"There was a freshwater amphibian that happened to have the equipment needed to colonize the sea — the body armor. The armor protected the animal from predators in freshwater but it could also be used to protect the bearer from seawater when the lineage colonized the saltier part of the water system," Motani said, like a person wearing a dive suit for underwater exploring.

The armor would have inhibited seawater absorption through the skin, requiring the animal to drink saltwater through its mouth and then filter out the salt with its gills.

In the fossil record, there are examples of land animals and freshwater aquatic animals whose bodies were carried out to sea after death. But the researchers expressed confidence that this amphibian was a genuine marine creature, in part because its bones exhibited a chemical signature of Triassic seawater, showing the animal developed and grew in the ocean.

"Very odd and charming in its own way," Motani said of the new species. "Its charm is in its unique, somewhat comical appearance and physiological peculiarity. I did not ever imagine that there was an amphibian that shared time and space with ichthyosaurs. That alone made a big impression on me."