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 structures9,10 and coccolithophorids11 from the Krols are also important in this context.
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PATWARDHAN, A., AHLUWALIA, A. Discovery of Pre-tertiary Fossils indigenous to the Lower Himalayan Basin. Nature 230, 451–452 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/230451a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/230451a0
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