Salem(Tamil Nadu)/Chandigarh: The discovery of hundreds of fossilised dinosaur eggs in Tamil Nadu at a nesting site by a Periyar University team triggered excitement on Thursday among Indian geologists who called it an "exciting find".
The find -- probably the first in South India -- underneath a stream in the Cauvery river basin region in a tiny village in Ariyalur district near Tiruchirapalli has taken geologists by surprise since the vicinity of Jabalpur in MP is generally considered the richest dinosaur field in the country.
The samples of the fossilised eggs which may be 65 million years old and found from what is believed to be the country's largest dinosaur nesting site have been sent to Germany for further research and further verification.
"We went to Ariyalur district based on the information we had. Upon investigation we found these dinosaur eggs in holes. Soon we found them in clusters and realised that these might have been nests," Ramkumar, head of the Geology Department, Periyar University, told reporters.
Research scholars, archaeologists and geologists of the Salem-based University were involved in the hunt for India's largest Jurassic nest.
Each egg was about 13 to 20 cm in diameter and they were lying in sandy nests which were of the size of 1.25 metres, Ramkumar said, adding, the spherical eggs in clusters of seven to eight were strewn all over a 2 sq km area.
"It is an exciting find and opens up several exciting possibilities," said Prof A D Ahluwalia of Punjab University, Chandigarh. He did not doubt the genuiness of the find since it was traced by geologists from the area. He however said it is for the scientists to confirm they were dinosaur eggs.
The researchers have requested the Ariyalur district administration to cordon off the site since a similar discovery in Jabalpur led to a plunder of the fossilized treasure.
"We found clusters and clusters of spherical eggs of dinosaurs. And each cluster contained eight eggs," Ramkumar said.
The eggs were believed to be from both, an aggressive, predatory dinosaur Carnosaur, and Sauropods, long-necked herbivores that became extremely large. Fossils of these reptiles were found on earlier expeditions but this is the first time so many nests and so many clusters of eggs were found, he added.
On September 12 this year, Ramkumar and his research students went to Ariyalur to scour the rocks and sediments as part of a study funded by Indian and German scientific institutions. As they paused by a stream on a grazing land at Sendurai, they found spherical-shaped fossils peeping out of the sand beds. "We got really excited. As I have seen a dinosaur egg, I was sure these were dinosaur eggs," said Ramkumar.
This is probably the first nesting site in South India that has been traced near Ariyalur, he said, adding the dinosaurs used to come here to lay eggs every year.
Ramkumar said the photographs of these eggs were sent to a research centre at Pudiyarturiyal and to Dr Kelmer of the International Dinosaur Research Centre. Details received from all the research centres confirmed these as dinosaur eggs, he said.
Some eggs were found in linear pattern, as the dinosaurs could have laid them while walking. Six km away, bones have also been unearthed. The team found many clusters of fossilised eggs, casts of eggs, dung and bones of dinosaurs.
Geologists deduce that occurrences of flash floods immediately after the nesting season might have buried the eggs.
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