Madhya Pradesh: Paleontologists find rare dinosaur nests in Narmada valley
Bhopal, Jan 21: Paleontologists have reported a rare discovery of closely located dinosaur nests and 256 eggs of the herbivorous titanosaurs in the Narmada valley in Madhya Pradesh.
Researchers from the Delhi University and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Mohanpur-Kolkata and Bhopal have also reported discovery of ovum-in-ovo or multi-shell eggs in Bagh and Kukshi areas in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.
The findings were published in PLoS One research journal this week by Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma, and Guntupalli Prasad, among others.
A study of the nests and eggs has revealed intimate details about the lives of the long-necked sauropods that walked the region more than 66 million years ago.
"The eggs were found from the estuary formed at a place where the Tethys Sea merged with the Narmada when Seychelles had broken away from the Indian plate. The separation of Seychelles had led to the incursion of the Tethys Sea 400 kms inside the Narmada Valley," Verma, who works in the Higher Secondary School, Bakaner, Dhar district, told PTI here.
He said the nests found in the Narmada valley were close to each other. Generally the nests are located at some distance from each other.
Verma, considered the driving force behind a series of discoveries of dinosaur fossils in Narmada, said the reason behind multi-shell eggs could be the inability of the mother to find favourable conditions for laying eggs.
"In such conditions, the eggs remain in the oviduct and the shell formation begins again. There could also have been instances of a dinosaur dying before laying eggs," Verma said.
The eggs, which ranged between 15 cm and 17 cm in diameter, likely belonged to a number of titanosaur species.
The number of eggs in each nest ranged from one to 20.
"During the field investigations carried out between 2017 and 2020, we found extensive hatcheries of dinosaurs in Bagh and Kukshi areas in Dhar District, MP, notably from the villages Akhada, Dholiya Raipuriya, Jhaba, Jamniapura, and Padlya," the researchers said.
They said the region falls between the eastern most Lameta exposures at Jabalpur in upper Narmada in valley central India and Balasinor in the west in lower Narmada valley in western central India.
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Railways announces 84 special trains following IndiGo flight cancellations
New Delhi (PTI): The Railways announced 84 special trains across all zones for Saturday to help people facing travel disruptions due to the mass flight cancellations by IndiGo.
In a coordinated move by the Railway Ministry, the trains, which are to make 104 trips, were arranged in the shortest possible time after analysis of train traffic situations in major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Patna, and Howrah, among others.
"The number of special trains and their trips might increase further depending on the traffic scenario. All zones have been asked to make use of all available resources, including rolling stock as well as manpower, to safely operate these trains for the convenience of lakhs of passengers stranded at different parts of the country due to flight cancellations," said Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information & Publicity, Railway Board.
Officials said efforts are being made to make people aware about the trains, and some divisions have even disseminated information at nearby airports to help passengers.
South Eastern Railway has issued a press release and informed the Airport Authority to display information regarding the newly introduced special train services.
ALSO READ: SWR announces special trains for passengers stranded by large-scale IndiGo cancellations
"Western Railway will run seven special trains on a special fare between Mumbai Central-New Delhi, Mumbai Central-Bhiwani, Mumbai Central-Shakur Basti, Bandra Terminus-Durgapura, Valsad-Bilaspur, Sabarmati-Delhi and Sabarmati-Delhi Sarai Rohilla stations," a press note said.
Similarly, South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights.
Central Railway and Northern Railway have planned 14 and 10 special trains respectively, and officials said these numbers are being further reviewed to meet any rising requirements.
Other zones have also issued notifications regarding special trains along with their schedules.
For at least five days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have significantly disrupted, with a large number of cancellations and delays causing hardships to thousands of passengers. In many cases, baggages have been misplaced.
