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India Was Believed To Be Isolated Before Colliding With Eurasian Plate. That’s Changed.

Swarajya Staff

Jan 13, 2017, 03:32 PM | Updated 03:32 PM IST


A map of the Indian plate (Alataristarion/Wikimedia Commons)
A map of the Indian plate (Alataristarion/Wikimedia Commons)

Throwing fresh light on how India gradually drifted away from Africa and Madagascar and collided with the Eurasian plate, scientists now report India was by no means as isolated as we thought during its journey. It was common belief among researchers that before it collided with the Eurasian plate, India was largely isolated for at least 30 million years during its migration.

Using tiny midges encased in amber, paleontologists from University of Bonn in Germany found that there must have been a connection between the apparently cut-off India and Europe and Asia around 54 million years ago that enabled the creatures to move around. Lead author Frauke Stebner from the Steinmann Institute at University of Bonn said,

Certain midges that occurred in India at this time display great similarity to examples of a similar age from Europe and Asia.

The findings are a strong indicator that an exchange did occur between the supposedly isolated India, Europe and Asia, added the team which involved scientists from the University of Gdansk (Poland) and Lucknow.

With inputs from IANS


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