Largest dino site in Ariyalur

Salem, Sept. 30: A team of geologists from Periyar University, Salem, has discovered nesting sites of dinosaurs near Ariyalur. Preliminary reports suggest that this could be the largest dinosaur nesting site ever know in India, going by the 2 sq km extent of area covered. The team has found a large number of eggs, egg clusters, nesting pits, etc.
The geologists – Dr Mu. Ramkumar, Dr K. Anbarasu, T. Sugantha, G. Satish and R. Suresh – have documented that it is the first-ever dinosaur nesting site in the Cauvery basin.
The discovery, they state, has ramifications in the environmental models postulated for the extinction of various species at the end of Cretaceous period (65 million years ago) including giant lizards, fishes and micro-organisms.
Dr K Anbarasu told this newspaper that spherical eggs with a diameter of 20 cm and a smooth upper surface were found as clusters of seven to eight, all strewn over. Some eggs were found in linear pattern, as the dinosaurs could have laid them while walking (because they can’t squat to lay eggs). Six km away, bones have also been unearthed.
The team found many clusters of fossilised eggs, casts of eggs, dung and bones of dinosaurs. The spherical-shaped eggs have an average diameter of 18 cm. Occurrences of unhatched eggs in large numbers, they said, were indicative that the dinosaurs returned to the same sites for nesting.
This find also raised questions on environmental conditions that promoted unsuccessful hatching.
The geologists also deduce that occurrences of flash floods immediately after the nesting season might have buried the eggs deep, creating unfavourable conditions for hatching.
The team intends to conduct in-depth study of the sites and also take steps to preserve the site from being vandalised.
There is a proposal to create a national field museum for better understanding of Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary transition. Considering the number of nests and fossilised eggs in them in association with the rarity of fossilisation of ancient organisms, it is apparent that the Kallamedu formation of the Cauvery basin might have been a thriving place for dinosaurs.
“The photographs of these have been sent to Prof Ashok Sahni of Punjab University, an expert in egg and dinosaur studies in India, and Dr Gerta Keller, Princeton University, USA, who is a researcher of the Cretaceous age, and they have confirmed it,” Dr Ramkumar said.