Probably Much of our Dinosaurs Can be found! India’s To start with Dinosaur Fossil Re-Discovered
In quieter moments when palaeontologists receive the chance to think on the present hot-spots for dinosaur discoveries thoughts may turn to the exciting fossil finds appearing out of Angola, or the job being undertaken to analyze to the bizarre Dinosauria fauna that after roamed the prehistoric island of Hateg in southern Europe. Other scientists may comment on the amazing Early Cretaceous dinosaur discoveries which are being made around the town of Winton in Queensland (Australia), however, it is essential that the fossil discoveries being made in India are not overlooked.
The Geology of India
India is a huge country with extensive Mesozoic-aged formations which are just just starting to reveal proof of the amazing creatures that roamed what was to end up being the Asian sub-continent. The real history of dinosaur discovery in India actually dates back a very long way. what dinosaur has 500 teeth The initial recorded dinosaur find was made in that country multiple hundred and eighty years ago, even before the word Dinosauria was coined and the Dinosauria established as a sub-Order of the Reptilia. After one hundred and thirty four years the very first dinosaur fossil described from India has been re-discovered, ironically between the collection of the Geological Survey of India at their Kolkata head-office.
Early Palaeontology on the Sub-Continent
In the days of the British Empire, when India was regarded whilst the “jewel in the crown”, the united states had been mapped and explored by her colonial masters. In 1828, Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Sleeman of the Bengal Army (later knighted and to become Major-General, after a long and distinguished career in India), led a small expedition to Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh (central India). This military expedition with its accompanying geologists and cartographers mapped the strata in the area. This strata is now referred to as the Lameta Formation and it contains Upper Cretaceous aged rocks (Maastrichtian faunal stage). The Lameta Formation is famous for its Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils, a lot of them unique to the region. The fossils found include long-necked dinosaurs (Titanosauria) as well as many Theropods including large Abelisaurids that rivalled the Tyrannosaurs with regards to size. It was this military expedition that found the very first proof of dinosaurs in India. W. H. Sleeman is credited with getting a twenty centimetre long, isolated bone from what was later to be termed a dinosaur.
Discovery of Titanosaurs
The discovery, made in 1828 was just four years after the Reverend William Buckland had described the very first dinosaur (Megalosaurus bucklandii) and many years prior to the eminent English anatomist Sir Richard Own established the Dinosauria as the word used to describe these “terrible, fearfully great lizards” ;.Sir Richard Owen established the word Dinosauria – the dinosaurs in April 1842, although he later alluded to the truth that he had come up with the word earlier (August 1841).
The Indian specimen was actually an individual, caudal vertebra (part of the tail), of a big, herbivorous dinosaur. It was passed amongst numerous distinguished Victorian scientists until 1877 when no record of where it absolutely was could possibly be found. This dinosaur fossil, which had lain undiscovered for millions of years was lost to science from 1877 until April 2012 when it absolutely was discovered by members of the Geological Survey of India have been re-assessing the fossil heritage of the sub-continent. It was a chance discovery, the specimen having resided in the collection of the Geological Society of India at their Kolkata head-office.
India’s first dinosaur fossil to be described was discovered by Dr. D. M. Mohabey and Dr. Subhasis Sen of the Geological Survey team. The dinner-plate sized specimen was amongst an accumulation fossils that had been studied by the English naturalist and geologist Richard Lydekker, who had joined the organisation that was to end up being the Geological Survey of India in 1874. It was Lydekker who formally named and described the specimen in 1877, establishing a fresh genus of dinosaur – Titanosaurus indicus. Â The newly, re-discovered tail bone is a holotype, a specimen upon which the original description of an organism is based. The specimen really has the original labels – 2193 and 2194 onto it which are clearly visible, the classification given to the fossil by Lydekker. The fossil was located between the vertebrate fossils in the catalogued collection made by Lydekker and stored on the very first floor at the headquarters of the Geological Survey of India.
Negotiating with Museums
The Indian team are looking for more fossils which were presumed lost and to simply help to fix a puzzle which involves the Natural History Museum in London. Numerous British expeditions explored the fossil beds of the Lameta Formation in the early the main 20th Century. Many specimens were subsequently taken off India to the then British Museum (now the Natural History Museum), in London. As part of a continuing international research programme to map India’s vertebrate fossils, scientists are hoping to be able to identify Indian dinosaurs between the collection at the Natural History Museum.
The Geological Survey of India team are optimistic that any dinosaur specimens which they are able to trace to the Natural History Museum collection is going to be returned to India for further study and to be united with other Indian dinosaur specimens. Just like the fossil found by Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Sleeman, one hundred and eight four years ago, a number of these fossils are holotypes and the sole known fossil evidence for numerous dinosaur species that seem to be unique to the sub-continent.
The caudal vertebra, now in the catalogued collection of the Indian survey team represents the very first Titanosaur fossil to be scientifically studied and therefore it is regarded as a vital specimen for the global research to the evolutionary history of these Sauropod dinosaurs.
Perhaps most importantly, whilst the Indian economy strengthens and the united states emerges as a worldwide super-power there’s a solid demand for improved educational resources and an increased exposure of India’s place and role in the scientific community. It is likely that Indian museums will intensify their efforts to have important artifacts such as for instance dinosaur fossils returned for their country as interest in dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals grows.
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