Shillong, Aug 24: In a groundbreaking paleontological discovery, vertebrate bone fossils believed to belong to historical whales have been unearthed in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills.
The fossils, discovered throughout a limestone investigation by the Geological Survey of India within the Chokpot block in November 2023, present an unprecedented glimpse into the area’s historical marine historical past, probably increasing the identified geographical vary of Center Eocene marine mammals in India.
This discovery is completely different to the one made in February 2024 the place {a partially} fossilized jaw and enamel, believed to be 35-40 million years outdated, had been discovered.
Each the discoveries have additionally given a clue to the origin of those fossils, which had intrigued everybody. Based mostly on the clues and evaluation of the fossils and the world they had been discovered, they’re believed to be of historical marine mammals, probably whales.
The GSI report “Center Eocene marine mammal (Whale) fossil from the Siju Limestone of the Shella Formation, Jaintia Group, South Garo Hills, Meghalaya” dated Aug 14 reveals the findings. The workforce comprised Firoze Ahmed and Debdatta Basu, Senior Geologists, GSI, NER, Shillong.
Embedded throughout the gray to bluish-grey limestone horizon of the Siju Limestone Member, these fossils have been preliminarily recognized as belonging to the Cetacea order, particularly from the household Protocetidae.
The fossils, embedded throughout the gray to bluish-grey limestone horizon of the Siju Limestone Member, have been linked to Center Eocene marine mammals, probably increasing the identified geographical vary of those historical creatures in India.
The fossil website, a part of the continuing research below the Area Season Program, lies throughout the Paleogene sedimentary sequences of the Jaintia Group, which relaxation unconformably on the Assam Meghalaya Gneissic Advanced (AMGC). The area’s stratigraphy consists of the Siju Limestone, a fossil-rich layer that has beforehand yielded proof of marine life, together with foraminifera and nannofossils, relationship again to the Center Eocene.
The Siju Limestone consists of laborious, compact, cliff-forming, huge, impure, buff-coloured to bluish extremely fossiliferous limestone with skinny intercalated layers of calcareous and gray shale with an erosional contact on the base.
Additional taxonomic and paleoenvironmental research are underway to refine the identification of those fossil fragments, which vary from 5.1 cm to 9 cm in size. Histological evaluation reveals spongy and porous inside textures, typical of whale rib bones, offering crucial clues to the marine environments that after existed within the Garo Hills.
“This discovery marks the primary potential prevalence of whale fossils in Meghalaya, with the fossils resembling these present in western India (Kutch and Jaisalmer), northwestern Himalaya, and Assam,” the GSI stated.
“Our information about marine mammals from Meghalaya was restricted to a single GSI report. Not a lot is understood about them from north-eastern India; the one different report comes from the fossiliferous center Eocene strata of the Sylhet Limestone of the Mikir Hills, Assam, the place a fossil mammal probably a partial lumbar vertebra of a cetacean was reported by Whiso et al. Moreover, in February 2024, a workforce of cavers (Core Geo Expeditions) stumbled upon vertebrate fossil fragments within the Tolegre space, round 40 km from this current discover in South Garo Hills,” the report stated.
“The pattern the cave explorers acquired is round 45 km away from our current discover. It was a partial jaw fragment with enamel in a cave,” a member of the analysis workforce stated.
The official stated the samples they acquired are fossil horizons consisting of humerus and rib fragments and way more. Just a few samples had been collected for consultant functions. “There are extra,” he added.
“The commonality in each these two finds is that it’s close to the Siju village which is the sort part of Siju Limestone horizon,” he stated.
“The discover might considerably contribute to understanding the evolution and distribution of marine mammals in India, notably throughout the Eocene epoch, a interval identified for the transition of whales from land to sea,” the GSI says.
The Core Geo Explorers had made comparable observations, believing that the fossils date again about 35 – 40 million years in the past, and belonged to both the genus Rhodocetus or Amulocetus (extinct now), which is believed to be land ancestor of the whales.
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