Fossil of coral from upper cretaceous age found in Dhar

INDORE: In a rare find, a paleontologist stumbled upon 83 million-year-old fossil of a solitary coral from upper cretaceous age from Bagh Beds in Dhar district. It is first time a coral species was found in Narmada Valley and the discovery could help get a peep into environment of the era.
The discovery has again confirmed presence of marine life and sea in Central India during evolution.Paleontologist Vishal Verma, who recently discovered fossil of solitary coral from nodular limestone rock in Dhar district of the state, said it is one of oldest evidence of sea incursion in Narmada Valley.
According to research and discovery of fossil, it is considered for around 30 lakh years sea and marine life was here in this part of the earth, but we had little knowledge about lives and environment of the particular era, he said.
“This is first discovery of coral fossil from Narmada Valley and it will help in understanding the evolution of lives and environment of that particular era,” Verma said, adding in March, a fossil of oyster was discovered in the area.
Verma said fossils were discovered when he was carrying out field work for proposed National Dinosaur Fossil Park to be set up in Dhar district. “In 2012, we had discovered around 10-crore-year-old fossilized teeth and bones of three generations of shark at Bagh belt in Dhar,” said Verma, who had discovered dinosaur fossils from the region.
Assistant professor of Howrah College of Engineering, Tapas Gangopadhya, who had done extensive work on fossils of the region, said he had found fossil of shark's predecessor at Bagh Belt a few years ago. “The fossils of star fish and other marine life that were discovered from the area are yet to be identified as most of them are extinct. They were considered earliest species of life. Fossils of shark and many other species have been found, suggesting the area was under the sea,” he said, adding Narmada valley is quite rich in fossils, but unfortunately they were not being preserved, he said.
Ashok Sahani, senior scientist, Centre for Advance Study in Geology and an internationally acclaimed authority on fossils, said Narmada Valley fossils can provide an insight into the past and would explode myths about evolution and civilization. A thorough research would challenge existing theory of evolution. Proper and extensive research may unfold the mystery.” The rarest and most significant is inter-trappian fossil which, if studied properly, can shed light on early life on earth.