Srinagar: At least seven fresh fossil sites were discovered in Kulgam and Anantnag districts of South Kashmir. The discoveries were made by Rouf Hamzah and Manzoor Javaid.
As per the lecturers involved in the excavation, Rouf Hamzah and Manzoor Javaid, the discovery of the fossil site in Aharbal in August this year led to the spate of the discoveries of fossils in the south of Kashmir.
Recently, geologists of Delhi University have also found fossils of sharks on a large scale in Barmer district of Rajasthan. This fossil contains the teeth of many types of sharks, which have been buried inside the earth for millions of years.
Notably, a simple unveiling ceremony and press briefing was held at Achabal, Chhatapal and Deethu, where team leader, Manzoor Javaid said that the exploratory work will continue with same zeal not only for fossil study but in other fields of science and technology. He said that about 10 Nature Walk-Fossil Talk programmes have been conducted for the students of various districts of North and South Kashmir.
Dr Rouf Hamza, on the occasion, said that the department of Geology, Universities, the Department of Education, Tourism Department and other concerned agencies must work collaboratively to bring Kashmir on Geo-tourism map of the world.
What are fossils?
The evidence of the existence of any extinct animal or plants on the ground is called fossil. When the body of a dead living organism gets buried in the soil, then the soft parts of its body get melted. The hard parts of the body, they gradually (hundreds of years) turn into stone. When these stones come to the surface of the earth for some reason, then from their study, researchers gather a lot of information about the anatomy of that organism. The bones of animals which have bones are often found in the form of fossils. Apart from these, eggs and shells of snails and shellfish are also found in the form of fossils.
