Fossil lizards and snakes indicate climate of Late Miocene hominid locality of

Haritalyangar, Himachal Pradesh, India

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.

Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun, an autonomous institution of the

Department of Science and Technology (DST), in association with researchers from Panjab
University (PU) Chandigarh, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) Rupnagar,
Punjab, India, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia documented the taxa ---Varanus,
Python, a colubrid and a natricid from this region for the first time.

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

Publication link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2022.10.003

 Fig. 1. Varanus sp. Vertebrae in anterior (A, F, K, P), posterior (B, G, L, Q), dorsal (C, H, M, R),
ventral (D, I, N, S), and lateral (E, J, O, T) views. Scale bars: 1 mm.

Fig. 2. Python sp. Trunk vertebra in anterior (A), posterior (B), dorsal (C), ventral (D) and lateral (E)
views. Scale bar: 1 mm