Discovery of Pre-tertiary Fossils indigenous to the Lower Himalayan Basin

Abstract

THE prolific abundance of fossils in the sediments of the Tethyan (or Tibetan) Himalayas and their reported absence in the pre-Tertiary sediments of the Lower Himalayas have been explained time and again by envisaging a highland¹, a geanticline² or a ridge³ between the two basins. This difference has also been explained by proposing a vast distance⁴ between the two basins, on the basis of palaeomagnetic data⁵. The use of palaeomagnetic data in the studies of global tectonics has, however, been convincingly challenged by Meyerhoff⁶, who further states that the present geographical relation of India with Asia has been constant since middle Proterozoic times. Whether or not the Himalayas originated as a consequence of continental drift⁷ remains undecided. But we can now provide evidence that the Lower Himalayas are not as barren of fossils as has been supposed⁸. Maybe there is no need to postulate a physical barrier between the Tethyan and the Lower Himalayan Basins. Recent discoveries of algal structures^9,10 and coccolithophorids¹¹ from the Krols are also important in this context.