Scientists unearth 178 million year-old dinosaur fossils in Kutch
it was during a geological field study in February that K Satyanarayana of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Regional Geology Laboratory came upon the fossils of a dinosaur in the Kuar Bet island in Kutch, the west coast of India, which is controlled by the Indian Army. It was found in the house of brigadier Ashok Duggan.
"There were earlier reports of huge bone fragments in the region," says Satyanarayana, but this was never confirmed. So when he and his team went to visit the region they came upon "some exposed and other slightly exposed huge bone fragments." Some fragments are still believed to be embedded in the rocks. "We knew they were dinosaur fossils, but we first had to be sure," he says on why it took so many months to publicise these findings. It was only after the confirmation from scientists at the geological Survey of India ( gsi) that the finding was first published in Current Science , a science journal.
These dinosaurs who roamed the area around 178 million years ago are believed to be plant-eaters and lived in the forests among medium-sized trees. "The head and teeth revealed that they were herbivorous," he says. The unearthed bone pieces contained more than twelve spindled shaped ones with length and diameter ranging from 10-15 cm and 9-10 cm respectively.
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