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What evidence suggests that parts of the Sahara were arid 7 million years ago?
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Sahara
Sand dunes in the Sahara, near Merzouga, Morocco.
Evidence suggesting that parts of the Sahara were arid 7 million years ago comes from the discovery of ancient dune deposits found throughout northern Chad in 2006.1
These findings indicate that the region experienced arid conditions during the Miocene Epoch, which occurred between 23 million and 5.3 million years ago. This discovery challenges earlier scientific consensus that the Sahara only became established as a desert approximately 2β3 million years ago during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene Epoch.1