Clams from Oz traced to fossils in Kutch 

Clams from Oz traced to fossils in Kutch 

Pune: In a remarkable feat, two Pune-based palaeontologists have traced the ancestry of an Indo-Pacific Clam Genus ‘Dosinisca’ to Kutch. The fossils found by them date back to the Miocene epoch and are around 2 crore years old. 

Earlier, similar fossils of the clam genus from the Pleistocene epoch that are around 25 lakh years old were found near Japan, thus making the ones found in Kutch possibly the oldest ones. 

Dr Vidyadhar Borkar, a visiting faculty at the postgraduate section of the Department of Geology in the Fergusson College, and Dr Kantimati Kulkarni, a senior scientist of the Agharkar Research Institute, have been studying molluscan fossils from the Miocene Epoch occurring in Kutch for the past 20 years. 

“We found fossils of Dosinisca from the sedimentary rocks, which were formed 2 crore years ago in the Abdassa taluka of Kutch. Interestingly, the fossil molluscs occurring in the sedimentary rocks of Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan formed some 53 lakh years ago, were studied by noted palaeontologist Ernest Vredenburg. He had published the findings of his study some 90 years ago,” Borkar said. 

While the fossils found by Vredenburg were classified under another name, on observing the specimens at the repository in Kolkata, Borkar said that they found those to be part of the same family. 

Clams belonging to the genus Dosinisca today thrive in the marine waters around New Zealand, Australia and Japan, included in the Indopacific region. 

Borkar explained, “During the early part of the Miocene Epoch, vast expanses in Kathiawar, Kutch and Sindh were submerged. Certain marine animals of the biota, which flourished in this temporary epicontinental sea, had migrated up to the northwest of Australia at that time through the East Indies and the Timor Island.” 

At about the same time the last phase of the uplifting of the Himalayas was completed. Thousands of tonnes of sediment was uplifted and transformed into the loftiest folded mountain range. 

“The habitat of the biota, which existed there, started shrinking. The very existence of hundreds of genera, which merrily thrived there, was thus in jeopardy. Migrating to the north was also not possible for them as there was a barrier in the form of Himalayas,” Borkar stated. 

Kulkarni said that she would hope to find more fossils of the same Genus in East Indies too, where it might have migrated. 
 

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