Ranchi, Nov. 3: A team of experts from Jharkhand and Bengal has unearthed plant fossils and reptilian eggs, believed to be 70-150 million years old and dating back to the Jurassic Period, atop the Rajmahal Hills of Sahebganj, once again underscoring the need to protect the site from rampant mining.
Head of geology at Sahebganj College Ranjit Kumar Singh, assistant professor of botany at Serampore College, Hooghly, Partho Talukdar and assistant professor of APJ Abdul Kalam Government College, Calcutta, Prantik Hazra had been scouring the hills since Tuesday.
"It is believed that this 2,600sqkm site was underwater millions of years ago and thus, home to some rare plant fossils," said Talukdar, adding that their finds included petrified plant fossils and three reptile eggs.
Ferns, ginkgoes and some conifers flourished during the Jurassic Period. Petrified wood is a special type of fossilised remains of terrestrial vegetation.
It is the result of plants having completely transitioned to stone. Unlike other types of fossils, which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material.
Describing the eggs, geologist Singh said they were tiny and white, and might have been laid by just lizards during the same period. "The fossils are fresh findings. Rajmahal Hills needs to be preserved for research. There is an urgent need to stall mining and quarrying activities here," he added.
Talukdar would return to Calcutta on Saturday. "We will ready a paper and publish our findings soon," he said, adding that they owed their discovery to local villagers who first spotted the eggs.
Singh stressed the need to set up a research centre to study fossils found in abundance in Sahebganj. "In the absence of an in-house facility, all research work is undertaken in collaboration with agencies in Lucknow and elsewhere," he said.
Notably, in 2008, the Jharkhand government had signed an MoU with Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, and the National Building Construction Corporation for a Rs 10-crore fossil park at Rajmahal Hills. But, the plan did not leave the drawing board despite lobbying by geologists and researchers.
