Manali: Supporting the claims of the geologists that the Himalayas had emerged from the Tethys ocean, a billion-year-old fossil ripple marks (fossil waves) have been discovered at Arki in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh.
Geologist and IndianGeoparks founder Ritesh Arya discovered this huge fossil ripple near a road. It was always exposed, yet nobody had noticed it until Ritesh identified it as a precious fossil. He claims the wave marks on the vertical rock to be nearly a billion years old. He said: “The waves of the Tethys ocean made this mark in the ancient times, which has now become a fossil. This proves that the site was a marine environment millions of years before the Himalayas and that these mountains emerged from the Tethys.”
Ritesh said Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh were rich in Tethys fossils and he had discovered many of those, which indicate marine environment in the area. The discovery zone in Solan district is just an hour’s drive from Tethys Fossil Museum at Dangyari in Kasauli tehsil. The museum also is part of Arya’s initiative to promote geotourism in the country, for which he builds geological laboratories and museums inside schools.
Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, Arya said: “Tethys Fossil Museum at Dangyari will open to the public in October, and 90% of the fossils it houses are from Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. The other 10% are from Gujarat and Chitrakoot.”
The museum has 2-billion-year-old stromatolite, Ediacaran, 540 million years old trilobite, fossil fish, 200 million years old ammonites from Spiti and a 66 million year old dinosaur egg, 55 million years old whale shark molluscs from Subathu, 45 million years old oyster with wood fossil, 39 million years old white quartzite with fossil wood, 30 million years old soil, 20 million years old angiosperms leaves, flowers, roots, wood, first mammal, 10 million years old mammoths, rhino, stone tools from paleolithic age and many more exhibits.
Geologist and IndianGeoparks founder Ritesh Arya discovered this huge fossil ripple near a road. It was always exposed, yet nobody had noticed it until Ritesh identified it as a precious fossil. He claims the wave marks on the vertical rock to be nearly a billion years old. He said: “The waves of the Tethys ocean made this mark in the ancient times, which has now become a fossil. This proves that the site was a marine environment millions of years before the Himalayas and that these mountains emerged from the Tethys.”
Ritesh said Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh were rich in Tethys fossils and he had discovered many of those, which indicate marine environment in the area. The discovery zone in Solan district is just an hour’s drive from Tethys Fossil Museum at Dangyari in Kasauli tehsil. The museum also is part of Arya’s initiative to promote geotourism in the country, for which he builds geological laboratories and museums inside schools.
Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, Arya said: “Tethys Fossil Museum at Dangyari will open to the public in October, and 90% of the fossils it houses are from Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. The other 10% are from Gujarat and Chitrakoot.”
The museum has 2-billion-year-old stromatolite, Ediacaran, 540 million years old trilobite, fossil fish, 200 million years old ammonites from Spiti and a 66 million year old dinosaur egg, 55 million years old whale shark molluscs from Subathu, 45 million years old oyster with wood fossil, 39 million years old white quartzite with fossil wood, 30 million years old soil, 20 million years old angiosperms leaves, flowers, roots, wood, first mammal, 10 million years old mammoths, rhino, stone tools from paleolithic age and many more exhibits.
