Experts in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district have determined that what were once believed to be palm-sized “stone balls” are really fossilized dinosaur eggs.
Vesta Mandaloi (40), of Padlya village, has been venerating these things as “Kakar Bhairav” in line with his forefathers’ belief that the “kuldevta” (totem) would protect his lands and animals from obstacles and disasters, according to an article in the Times of India.
Many others, including Mandaloi, worshiped similar discoveries unearthed during an excavation in Dhar and surrounding areas.
Residents realized the “balls” they had been venerating were fossilised eggs of the Titanosaurus dinosaur species during a recent field visit by specialists from Lucknow’s Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences.
Palaeontologists uncovered tightly spaced dinosaur nests and 256 eggs belonging to herbivorous titanosaurs in the Narmada Valley of Madhya Pradesh in January of this year.
Furthermore, experts from Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Mohanpur-Kolkata and Bhopal have reported the discovery of ovum-in-ovo or multi-shell eggs in Dhar district’s Bagh and Kukshi districts.
Authors including Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma, and Guntupalli Prasad reported the findings in the PLoS One scientific publication. An analysis of the nests and eggs revealed extensive information about the long-necked sauropods that lived in the area around 66 million years ago.
“The eggs were discovered in an estuary formed when the Tethys Sea merged with the Narmada after Seychelles broke away from the Indian plate.” The split of Seychelles resulted in the Tethys Sea intruding 400 kilometers into the Narmada Valley,” Verma told PTI.
According to the experts, this is the first time a multi-shell egg of a reptile has been discovered in the entire world. According to the researchers, this discovery might show commonalities in the nesting practices of birds and reptiles.
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