Ancient insects find shows India wasn't isolated 50mn yrs ago

[SpArK]

Ancient insects find shows India wasn't isolated 50mn yrs ago​

Discovery of perfectly preserved insects in amber from a lignite mine in Gujarat has challenged the assumption that India was an isolated island continent about 52 million years ago.

A team of German, Indian and US scientists have found a trove of insects in a newly-excavated amber deposit from the Vastan lignite mine, 30km northeast of Surat, in a geological zone called the Cambay Shale.

The arthropods -- bees, termites, spiders, and flies -- found in the Cambay deposit are not unique as would be expected on an island but rather have close evolutionary relationships with fossils from other continents, said the scientists detailing their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It has long been assumed that India broke away from Africa about 150 million years ago and didn't join up with another landmass -- Asia -- until about 50 million years ago.

Thus, the scientists were believing that the insects found in the amber would differ significantly from those found elsewhere in Asia.

But, to their surprise, the organisms in the amber were found to be closely related to other species found in northern Europe, Australia, New Guinea and tropical America.
"The amber shows, similar to an old photo, what life looked like in India just before the collision with the Asian continent," said coauthor Jes Rust, Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Bonn University in Germany reporting the findings in the journal.

"The insects trapped in the fossil resin cast a new light on the history of the sub-continent," Rust said.

The new amber and amber from Colombia that is 10 million years older indicate that tropical forests are older than previously thought.In the research paper, Grimaldi, Rust, and colleagues described the Cambay amber as the oldest evidence of tropical forests in Asia.

"The evidence is beginning to accumulate that tropical forests are ancient," Grimaldi said. "They probably go back to right after the K-T boundary," between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods 65 million years ago, when non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.

The team plans to return to Gujarat in January to collect more samples, and the work in the lab is only beginning, the researchers said.
"We're still discovering all sorts of cool stuff in this amber," Grimaldi said. "Every day."
Amber from broadleaf trees is rare in the fossil record until the Tertiary, or after the dinosaurs went extinct. It was during this era that flowering plants rather than conifers began to dominate forests and developed the ecosystem that still straddles the equator today.

David Grimaldi, curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, said: "We know India was isolated, but when and for precisely how long is unclear. The biological evidence in the amber deposit shows that there was some biotic connection."

The similarity in the insects means Asia and India collided a few million years earlier than geological evidence suggests, Grimaldi said.

Or it could support the theory that there were small islands connecting the continents, allowing species to "hop" across, he added.


Ancient insects find shows India wasn't isolated 50mn yrs ago

 

[SpArK]

Vast collection of insects preserved in amber show India was NOT cut off from the rest of the world 50million years ago​

A vast collection of bees, termites, spiders, flies and ants dating back 53 million years has challenged assumptions about India's early history.
The bugs, preserved in lumps of amber, show that India was not cut off from the rest of the world before joining the Asian continent 50 million years ago.
For long periods when India was an island there must have been a flow of small creatures travelling between it and the mainland.

Encased in amber: An ant that was found in the Cambay amber deposit of western India is not unique as would be expected on an island, but has close evoloutionary relationships with fossils from other continents

Evidence: A fly identified as Psocoptera, one of around 100 species of arthropod found preserved in amber dating back 50 million years
​

Scientists discovered more than 700 arthropods - animals with jointed legs like insects and spiders - in the amber collected from the coast of north-west India's Gujarat province.
They were trapped and preserved in solidified sap chemically linked to a family of hardwood trees that now makes up 80% of the forest canopy in south-east Asia.
The creatures turned out to have relatives as far apart as northern Europe, Asia, Australia and Central America.
This was a surprise, since according to geological theory India had been an isolated land mass for around 100 million years - enough time for its own unique species to evolve.
'The insects trapped in the fossil resin cast a new light on the history of the sub-continent,' said Professor Jes Rust, from the University of Bonn in Germany.
Previously, India is believed to have 'broken off' from the East African land mass 160 million years ago.
It then 'floated free' - travelling at around 20 centimetres per year - before crashing into Asia about 50 million years ago.
The collision caused the Earth's crust to wrinkle up, forming the Himalayas.
Rust and his colleagues, whose findings appear in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, believe long chains of volcanic islands may have allowed the bugs to mingle by 'island hopping'.
'What we found indicates that India was not completely isolated, even though the... deposit dates from a time that precedes the slamming of India into Asia,' said co-author Professor Michael Engel, from the University of Kansas, US.

Until now the generally accepted theory was that the Indian sub-continent broke off from the East African land mass some 160 million years ago and floated through the oceans at a speed of 20 cm a year. If this theory was correct, India would have been isolated for 100 million years. Because of this 50-million-year-old amber deposit, the theory doesn't stand anymore

Read more: Vast collection of insects preserved in amber show India was NOT cut off from the rest of the world 50million years ago | Mail Online

​

Well preserved: A spider from a collection of arthropods from north-west India that has been preserved in amber for 50 million years


Arthropods representing 55 genera, or family groups of species, were identified, mostly insects but also spiders and mites.
The amber itself raises questions because the creatures were so well preserved for such a long period of time.
As for the amber itself, it is proof that the family of Dipterocarpaceae did not peak 25 million years ago, but it apparently even existed over 50 million years ago.

'That is a big surprise,' said Professor Rust.


Read more: Vast collection of insects preserved in amber show India was NOT cut off from the rest of the world 50million years ago | Mail Online

 

[Chogy]

I'm not sure how they can draw that conclusion. Insects can travel vast distances over water on air currents or floating debris.

Still an interesting story. Amber is cool, especially when you can see the ancient insects inside.

 

[Kinetic]

yeah wondering so.

But Indians can claim anything on earth

You will never learn. India plate was in island that collided with Eurasian plate and that is proved fact nothing new.

 

[Tshering22]

Ancient insects find shows India wasn't isolated 50mn yrs ago​

Discovery of perfectly preserved insects in amber from a lignite mine in Gujarat has challenged the assumption that India was an isolated island continent about 52 million years ago.

A team of German, Indian and US scientists have found a trove of insects in a newly-excavated amber deposit from the Vastan lignite mine, 30km northeast of Surat, in a geological zone called the Cambay Shale.

The arthropods -- bees, termites, spiders, and flies -- found in the Cambay deposit are not unique as would be expected on an island but rather have close evolutionary relationships with fossils from other continents, said the scientists detailing their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It has long been assumed that India broke away from Africa about 150 million years ago and didn't join up with another landmass -- Asia -- until about 50 million years ago.

Thus, the scientists were believing that the insects found in the amber would differ significantly from those found elsewhere in Asia.

But, to their surprise, the organisms in the amber were found to be closely related to other species found in northern Europe, Australia, New Guinea and tropical America.
"The amber shows, similar to an old photo, what life looked like in India just before the collision with the Asian continent," said coauthor Jes Rust, Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Bonn University in Germany reporting the findings in the journal.

"The insects trapped in the fossil resin cast a new light on the history of the sub-continent," Rust said.

The new amber and amber from Colombia that is 10 million years older indicate that tropical forests are older than previously thought.In the research paper, Grimaldi, Rust, and colleagues described the Cambay amber as the oldest evidence of tropical forests in Asia.

"The evidence is beginning to accumulate that tropical forests are ancient," Grimaldi said. "They probably go back to right after the K-T boundary," between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods 65 million years ago, when non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.

The team plans to return to Gujarat in January to collect more samples, and the work in the lab is only beginning, the researchers said.
"We're still discovering all sorts of cool stuff in this amber," Grimaldi said. "Every day."
Amber from broadleaf trees is rare in the fossil record until the Tertiary, or after the dinosaurs went extinct. It was during this era that flowering plants rather than conifers began to dominate forests and developed the ecosystem that still straddles the equator today.

David Grimaldi, curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, said: "We know India was isolated, but when and for precisely how long is unclear. The biological evidence in the amber deposit shows that there was some biotic connection."

The similarity in the insects means Asia and India collided a few million years earlier than geological evidence suggests, Grimaldi said.

Or it could support the theory that there were small islands connecting the continents, allowing species to "hop" across, he added.


Ancient insects find shows India wasn't isolated 50mn yrs ago

First it was the imperialist "Aryan invasion" theory that bit the dust and now another imperialist colonial theory that bites the dust. One by one, our reality is automatically being exposed despite powers having tried to malign science for temporary political gains.

 

[Spring Onion]

lolzzz anything that proves you aryan right lolzz

anyway good luck

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Still an interesting story. Amber is cool, especially when you can see the ancient insects inside.

Jurassic Park fan,eh?

 

[no_name]

Ambers are almost as cool as gems. And you can get it off trees.

It could be possible that some insects are carried on the body of long distance migratory flying dinosaurs/animals and carried to india.

 

[CardSharp]

Ambers are almost as cool as gems. And you can get it off trees.

It could be possible that some insects are carried on the body of long distance migratory flying dinosaurs/animals and carried to india.

Ahh but they oxidize and eventually crumble away. (they also burn and the smoke smells of pine, lol David Attenborough teaches me everything)

 

[Capt.Popeye]

You will never learn. India plate was in island that collided with Eurasian plate and that is proved fact nothing new.

That was "journalist-speak". Were you surprised?

 

[nForce]

I'm not sure how they can draw that conclusion. Insects can travel vast distances over water on air currents or floating debris.

Still an interesting story. Amber is cool, especially when you can see the ancient insects inside.

These are much smaller insects like bees, termites, spiders, flies and ants and the distance is quite much....

 

[no_name]

Ahh but they oxidize and eventually crumble away.

Are ther specific conditions for it to happen? Because some of those are millions of years old, though granted they are dug from the earth.

 

[CardSharp]

Are ther specific conditions for it to happen? Because some of those are millions of years old, though granted they are dug from the earth.

I think it exposure to air basically. The environment from which they are collected (washed up on shore or mined) exclude oxygen. Once they are dug up and made into jewlry, they start oxidizing, and acquire what jewlers call a patina (thin opaque layer).

As far as I recall, Amber is really just a natural form of plastic, where pine resin polyermerizes into a polymer plastic. (duh poor choice but oh well).

Here is that David Attenborough Documentary about amber I was talking about.

YouTube - The Amber Time Machine 1/5

 

[Awesome]

I'm not sure how they can draw that conclusion. Insects can travel vast distances over water on air currents or floating debris.

Still an interesting story. Amber is cool, especially when you can see the ancient insects inside.

I had the same thought, this is not evidence enough. A nice hurricane can wash ashore all kinds of things and deposit them on the Indian land mass.

I would get it if it were something an elephant sized animal (and a bunch of them).

 

[siegecrossbow]

Are ther specific conditions for it to happen? Because some of those are millions of years old, though granted they are dug from the earth.

Jurassic Park always comes to my mind when Amber is discussed.