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Genes show ostrich lived in India 130 million years ago

A DNA study by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology has revealed that ostriches inhabited India about 25,000 years ago.

Hyderabad: A DNA study of an ancient fossil by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology has revealed that ostriches inhabited India about 25,000 years ago. In order to establish that the partially fossilised egg shell was of an ostrich, a multi-institutional collaborative research work was carried out by CCMB, IIT Roorkee and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences. The results have been published in the latest issue of the scientific journal PLoS One.

CCMB senior principal scientist Dr Kumarasamy Thangaraj said the team had analysed the ostrich egg shells in the state-of-the-art ancient DNA facility and established that the eggshells were genetically similar to the African ostrich. “We have analysed the mitochondrial DNA to come to this conclusion,” he said. The ostrich is a large flightless bird native to Africa and the origin and evolution of this bird is widely attributed to the continental drifting of Gondwanaland.

According to scientists, 150 million years ago, Gondwanaland was a supercontinent comprising South America, Arabia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, India and Madagascar. The initial breakup of this supercontinent during the Early Cretaceous period, 130 to 100 million years ago, separated Africa and Indo-Madagascar. This bio-geographical dispersion eventually led to ostriches moving from Africa to Eurasia, including India, via a land route around 20 million years ago.

The continental drift theory for the existence of ostriches in India has never been proven scientifically. Over time, geologists and archaeologists have discovered ostrich egg shells mostly in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. However, only the morphological pattern of the fragile eggshell pieces is not sufficient to prove the existence of the ostrich in India.

According to CCMB director Dr Rakesh Mishra, this multi-disciplinary study provides the first molecular paleontogenetic evidence for the presence of ostriches in India, complementing the continental drift theory of bio-geographical movement of ostriches in India, and opening up a new window into the evolutionary history of ratites (group of large flightless birds).

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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