A team of West Bengal scientists has unearthed a fossil of a 25 lakh-year-old Dragonfly in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
Researchers from four universities in West Bengal have been searching for fossils in the sediments of the Chotanakpur Plateau for almost a year.
The search, led by Mahasin Ali Khan, an assistant professor of botany at the University of Chitto-Kanho-Birsha, found the fossil of a Dragonfly at a depth of about 5 m from the soil surface in Latehar district of Jharkhand.
The fossil, which is about 3 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, is more than 25 lakh years old, ”said Subir Pera, Professor, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta.
In 2013, a fossil dating back 200 million years was discovered in China. This discovery by West Bengal scientists is the first plateau fossil found in India. Scientists say the fossil belongs to the late Neogene period.
