Greg Wilson, PhD, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology
During most of the Age of Dinosaurs (Mesozoic Era), India had a much more southerly position than it does today. It was positioned alongside Madagascar and was connected to South America via Antarctica. Then, at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs (Cretaceous Period), India split from these other landmasses and began drifting northward. It would eventually collide with Eurasia and form what are today the Himalayan Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.
This dramatic journey took nearly 40 million years, but very little is known about the dinosaurs, mammals, plants, and other organisms that were carried on this Indian raft. Some expect that they were like plants and animals known from South America and other southern landmasses at this time, and others expect that the evolution that took place during this long journey produced plants and animals very different from those on other southern continents.
As part of my continuing field research in India, I will be travelling to Hyderabad in the state of Andhra Pradesh to meet with colleagues from the Geological Survey of India. Together we will be exploring fossil beds in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in hopes of discovering fossils that will give us clues to the plants and animals that lived on the Indian raft during the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs.