A haunt of dinosaurs now prepares for enthusiasts

BHOPAL - Ancient fossils are set to give a boost to modern-day science tourism. The site where the National Dinosaur Fossil Park is to be set up in Madhya Pradesh, after all, boasts of dinosaur eggs estimated to be more than 65 million years old.

The park in Dhar district will promote the study of pre-historic life in the Narmada Valley. To be set up by the state wildlife board, it will come up at a place where more than 100 dinosaur eggs were found.

“More than 100 dinosaur eggs were found in Bagh in Dhar district in 2006. Dinosaur nests have also been found in the district,” Forest Minister Sartaj Singh told IANS.

Experts say the find was a significant step in the study of pre-historic life in the Narmada Valley, which has been attracting paleontologists from across the world.

The credit for the find goes to amateurs - Vishal Verma, Govind Verma and Rajesh Chouhan - who have researched on the subject for more than a decade.

“We have also found footprints of dinosaurs through which the ‘track way’ of the now extinct heavy animals could also be traced,” Vishal told IANS over phone.

Verma said the dinosaur eggs if preserved might open doors for science tourism in Madhya Pradesh adding that an information centre for dinosaurs should also be established along with the park.

Associated with Mangal Panchayatan Parishad, made up of a group of amateur explorers, Vishal said that dinosaur eggs - which were hard enough to escape predators, yet soft for the baby dino to break through on birth - are a great fascination for paleontologists.

“Today we get clues about the ‘lifestyle’ of dinosaurs - which became extinct 65 million years ago - only through their fossil bones, eggs and foot prints,” he said.

“Conjectures have been made about their body functions from the giant bones. Take for instance, Seismosaurus which is estimated to have been over 30 metres tall and weighed over 120 tonnes,” he said.

“It must have had a heart as powerful as a water pump, to provide adequate oxygen. To keep its huge body fit, the giant must have consumed about two tonnes of food daily,” Verma added.

The discovery of the 100 eggs of herbivorous dinosaurs belonging to the early Cretaceous era is expected to boost the study of pre-historic life in the Narmada Valley, Verma said.

“These animals used to come from far away areas to lay eggs on the sandy banks of the rivers in this area,” he said. “These were 40-90 feet in length,” he said.

The richest dinosaur field in India is in the Deccan Traps near Jabalpur.

East India Company army captain William Sleeman was the first one to find a cache of large bones in 1828 in the Jabalpur Cantonment. Since then several discoveries have been made in the Narmada Valley from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh to Kheda in Gujarat.

The parishad had earlier discovered fossilised dinosaur bones in the region and it won appreciation from all quarters.

Geological Survey of India’s former director (paleontology) Arun Sonakia said: “It’s a good job done by amateurs. With this find, the scientists would be able to know more about the spread of the dinosaurs.”

“It can also throw light on the reasons of their extinction. Plus, the nesting site and a large number of fossilised eggs would also throw light on the variety of dinosaurs that existed in the Cretaceous era,” he said.

(Sanjay Sharma can be contacted at sanjay.s@ians.in)