Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NEW DELHI
******
Fossil lizards and snakes indicate climate of Late Miocene hominid locality of
Haritalyangar, Himachal Pradesh, India
New Delh-16.12.2022
Remains of fossil lizards and snakes have been discovered recently from a late Miocene hominid
locality of India (dated 9.1 Million Years) in Haritalyangar, Himachal Pradesh, indicating a
seasonally wet sub-humid to semi-arid climate in the area with mean annual temperature of
around 15–18.6°C during that period. It was similar to condition in the area today.
Lizards and snakes are cold-blooded squamates whose distribution, richness, and diversity of are
highly dependent on temperature and climatic conditions. For this reason, squamates are widely
regarded as excellent indicators of past climates, particularly ambient temperatures.
The occurrence of taxa Varanus in Haritalyangar is important in regard to its past biodiversity
because varanids have a limited fossil record in Asia. Also, the fossil Python from South Asia
remains poor except for the earliest record from Pakistan (dated ca. 18 Ma) and Kutch, Gujarat
(dated ca. 14-10 Ma). A co-existence of Varanus and Python, two iconic squamates, revealed a
wider distribution of the clade in this southern Asian territory.
The overall Haritalyangar squamate fauna, which is dominated by both large and small semi-
aquatic and terrestrial taxa, indicates a seasonally wet sub-humid to semi-arid climate in the area
during the Late Miocene, 9.1 Ma. Moreover, the mean annual temperature must have been high
in the region at that time (not less than 15–18.6°C, similar to the mean annual temperature in this
area today), indicated by the occurrence of important thermophilic elements such as Varanus and
Python.
Dr. Ningthoujam Premjit Singh led this study along with Dr. Ramesh Kumar Sehgal and Mr.
Abhishek Pratap Singh from WIHG, Dr. Rajeev Patnaik, Dr. Kewal Krishan and Shubham Deep
from PU, Dr. Navin Kumar, Mr. Piyush Uniyal and Mr. Saroj Kumar from IIT Ropal and Dr.
Andrej Čerňanský from Comenius University. It was published in the Geobios Journal in
November 2022
Fig. 2. Python sp. Trunk vertebra in anterior (A), posterior (B), dorsal (C), ventral (D) and lateral (E)
views. Scale bar: 1 mm
<><><><><>
SNC/RR