Mohali
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Masol (Mohali, Punjab)
The Times of India, Jun 25 2015
Rohan Dua
Site in Mohali could hold world's oldest fauna: Experts
Giant giraffes and hippos once roamed Mohali, fossils reveal
An international team of experts studying pre-history are excited about a 50 hectare site in a Punjab village as it could well be the oldest in terms of discovery of prehistoric fauna. The study , being jointly conducted by French and Indian scientists, also found that ancient ancestors of hippos were residents of this site in Mohali's Masol village 2.6 million years ago. In fact, more than 2,000 fossils of different herbivores, including Stegodon, an ancient elephant with tusks up to four metres, and Sivatherium, a giant giraffe, were dug up from Masol which is surrounded by Shiwalik hills. Before this, the oldest sites were in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia dating back to 2.58 million years.
The team has also found 14 fossils of Leptobos, pre-historic ancestors of modern-day cows that weighed up to 320 kg. These rare fossils, excavated between September 2009 and March 2015 , were bubblewrapped and dispatched to a French lab recently .
Experts say the animals may have made this region their home because of the abundance of water. “These ranges between river Ravi and Yamuna are composed of the Shivaliks' formations and animals used to come and graze in these areas,“ they say.
The research was headed by India-based Society for Archaeological & Anthropological Research and France's National Scientific Research Center and Department of Prehistory of the National Museum of Natural History .“We are in the middle of a huge discovery . Specialists such as geologists, geomorphologists, sedementologists, physicists, palaeontologists, taphonomy experts in stone age cultural studies, have worked together to establish anthropic activity ,“ said SAAR president Dr Mukesh Singh, a PhD in pre-history and quaternary geology from France. The research paper on these fossils has been called `Taphonomical studies of the Plio-Pleistocene Transition Fauna of Masol in Shiwalik Frontal Range, Northwestern India'.
The study says that tectonic activity in the Himalayas is leading to surfacing of these fossils, being deposited in the earth for centuries. “Owing to these movements, the fossils deposited deep below move to a shallow surface, where continuous weathering effects exposes them,“ it says. The scientists have already conducted paleo-magnetic dating electron spin resonance (ESR) tests on the fossils to know their age.
