Dinosaurs: India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
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Eggs
Mandla, MP: 2020
P Naveen, November 7, 2020: The Times of India
From: P Naveen, November 7, 2020: The Times of India
A child playing with ‘round stones’ and a Jurassicbuff government schoolteacher crossed paths in a farm in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, leading to the discovery of 65-million-year-old dinosaur eggs of a species never before seen in India.
The site is located around 80km from Bara Simla hills of Jabalpur, where the first dinosaur fossils in Narmada Valley were discovered in 1828 by Captain William Sleeman. Since then, fossils of a variety of dinosaurs have been found in various parts of Narmada valley.
The latest find was purely by chance. “I was out on a morning walk near Mohantola locality when I saw a young boy playing with a ball-shaped stone. When I asked him to give it to me, he refused and said I could find more such ‘balls’ near a pond, which was being dug. I followed his directions and reached the site where I found a cluster of seven such ‘balls’. I knew instantly that they were fossilised eggs,” Prashant Shrivastava, a 49-year-old teacher from Mandla, told TOI.
The pond is in someone’s farmland. The site where the eggs were found was a dinosaur nest, said Prof P K Kathal, a palaeontologist from the Centre of Advanced Study in Geology at Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, who authenticated the fossilised eggs. “The eggs are from the Upper Cretaceous period, and seem to belong to a new species of beaked or sauropod dinosaur hitherto unknown in India,” Kathal said.
Footprints
Rajasthan, 2016
The Times of India, Jun 13 2016
Vimal Bhatia
150m-year-old dino footprints found in Rajasthan
A team from the geological department of Jainarayan Vyas University , Jodhpur, has discovered 150 million-year-old footprints of Eubrontes Gleneronsensis Theropod dinosaurs in Lathi formation in Jaisalmer district. These carnivores were 1-3 metres in height and seem to belong to the coastal environment. Fossils of Eubrontes Theropod dinosaurs have been found worldwide in France, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia and the US. The footprints of Eubrontes Gleneronsensis Theropod dinosaurs have been discovered for the first time by Dr Virendra Singh Parihar, Dr Suresh Chandra Mathur and Dr Shankar Lal Nama.
“Morphologically , footprints of Eubrontes Gleneronsesis Theropod dinosaurs are large about 30 cm long, tridactyle, strong with thick toes. Their body is estimated to be 1-3m tall and 5-7m in length,“ Parihar said.“The Katrol formation of Kutch basin and Baisakhi formation of Jaisalmer basin are potential sites for remains of dinosaurs.“ This discovery might open new vistas in searching dinosaur fossils in equivalent rocks. The finding is important as professor Mathur along with his team discovered mass mortality horizon (bone bed) containing fossils of dinosaur, crocodile, gastropods and fishes from Fategarh formation with magnetic spherules. Mathur said this discovery shows the cause and effect relationship and can help to solve the mystery of the extinction of dinosaurs.
