I FOSSILI DELLE FOGLIE NELLA VALLE DEL KASHMIR

I fossili delle foglie rivelano come l'Himalaya riscriveva il clima del Kashmir 4 milioni di anni fa A ground breaking study by Indian Scientists has revealed that the Kashmir Valley, now known for its cool, Mediterranean-type climate, was once a warm, humid subtropical paradise. This ancient climate, long buried in the past, has been resurrected by probing fossilized leaves and mountain-building forces. As part of the rich fossil leaf collection curated by the late Prof. Birbal Sahni and Dr. G.S. Puri, housed at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) were collections recovered from the Karewa sediments of the Kashmir Valley. These displayed remarkable diversity and preservation. Many of the specimens resembled subtropical taxa that no longer exist in the region s current temperate climate. A group of researchers from BSIP were intrigued by the striking mismatch between past and prese...