Posted on 12/09/2005 11:59:17 AM PST by Red Badger
LUCKNOW: "Do you know that the evolution of mighty whales took place in India around 55 million years before present.
And, though the Ostrich is not found in India anymore, but according to scientists, the bird also evolved here about 12 million years before present.
Interestingly, these facts are part of a science curriculum in the West, but Indian students are largely unaware of the same.
This was revealed by Ashok Sahni, emeritus professor, Chandigarh University, in his lecture delivered at a seminar on "Northward Flight of India in the Mesozoic - Cenozoic: Consequences on Biotic Changes and Basin Evolution", at the Geology department of Lucknow University.
"The largest sea water mammal — the Whale — evolved to fill in the vacuum caused by the extinction of dinosaurs living in sea water," he said.
"The dinosaurs were dominant animals. They became extinct around 65 million years before present. Simultaneously, large sea reptiles also became extinct. It created a vacuum in the sea as well as on the land. Thus there was a need of large animals, both on land and water, who could feed on fauna and flora to maintain the equilibrium. Thus whales evolved to fill in the aquatic ecospace.
However, it took ten million years for whales to evolve," he said. Actually, he said, whales and hippopotamus are decedents of Artiodactyle, a mammal, living on the earth in the dinosaur age.
In fact, he said, extinction of dinosaurs provided an opportunity for mammals to grow. "We have fossil evidences that the ostrich also evolved in India, and from here, it reached other parts of the world," he said.
Similarly, elephants also evolved in India from its ancestor Tethyere, he said. Prof Sahni said India houses one of the richest biodiversity 'hot spots' in the world.
This is mainly because the Indian land mass once was a part of Gondwana land mass in southern hemisphere. The land mass broke and the Indian plate drifted towards the northern hemisphere. It collided with the Asian plate.
It took million of years to drift from south to north. Thus India has fauna and flora found in southern regions as well as in Asia, he said. Rhinoceros is an Asian animal, which came to India after collision. Similarly, some varieties of fish and rodents are also from Asia. Indian crocodiles resemble those found in Argentina and Madagascar.
Five years back, a variety of frog was discovered in Nasik, which are only found in Seychelles, he said. India is very important to understand animals and plants on global basis, he said and emphasised on the need of preserving this biodiversity.
Other prominent speakers on the second day were SK Biswas, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay; Shiladri S Das, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkota; A Govindan, Asian Biostratigraphic Services, Chennai; Jyotsana Rai, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow; Prof SB Bhatia, Chandigarh; DS Bora, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun; Prof Jai Krishna, Benaras Hindu University; Prof K Matsumaru, Japan; Prof IB Singh, Lucknow University; Sunil Bajpai, IIT Roorkee; Amit K Ghosh, BSIP, Lucknow and Prabha Kalia, Delhi University.
Exactly. He is supposing that some sort of goal existed, which presupposes an intelligence capable of having goals. Of course people do that all the time. Since we're looking back, we tend to assume that the present world was a goal in view all along. Marx did the same thing, when he assumed that society was evolving toward something specific.
I'm an evolutionist, and all that, but I seriously doubt that whales evolved in India ... and not in some ocean somewhere.
India probably was an ocean many millions of years ago. Witness: How do you think the Himalayas got their name?.....
India is taking over the evolution market now, too?!?
Its just going to piss me off thinking I am ordering an ostrich from ABC Warehouse and when it comes, its an emu and i can't send it back.
When's it all going to end?
Che Guevara was also an Argentinian by birth.
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