Badshahi Bagh
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Latest revision as of 10:33, 6 October 2020
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[edit] Stegodon fossil
A camera trap survey in UP Shivalik range forests led officials and wildlife experts to a rare discovery this week. Lying in a shallow water stream just 50km north of Saharanpur city in Badshahi Bagh was an unusually long stone that caught the team’s eye. Upon a closer look, they agreed it was a unique fossil.
The 2-feet-long specimen was sent to Dehradun-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology which confirmed that the fossil was the lower jaw of a Stegodon, an extinct relative of the modern Asian elephant, that likely dates back five to eight million years. “It’s the first such find in UP’s Shivalik range,” said associate coordinator with WWF India, Dehradun, Dr Ponappa Bopanna.
Scientists at Wadia institute said the fossil belonged to a Stegodon calf. Scientist R K Sehgal said, “The moderately preserved fossil is mandibular ramus (part of lower jaw). Stegodon preceded Elephas Maximus (the Asian Elephant). The species had tusks that grew 10-12 feet.”
