TIGER LIKE REPTILE UNCOVERED BY

INDIAN INSTITUTE RESEARCHERS

• Mysterious fossils found in the Karakoram Pass, Ladakh, India • The fossils has characteristics of both a mammal and dinosaur • The relic was found in the Indian Shield, an ancient craton • Scientist believe it may be some three billion years old The completed skeleton, some 3 billion years old, on display at the New Delhi University Fossil Laboratory, has characteristic of both reptilian and mammal characteristics. Several fossils with origins dating billions of years in the past has been identified by a team of geology prospectors in the Ladakh Region, India. The find was discovered in the Karakoram Pass, a mountain pass between India and China in the Karakoram Range, by an government Indian road survey crew from New Delhi. The pass is saddled between two mountains and as the pass was rarely used, the high altitude and the lack of vegetation was responsible for the choice for farmers to avoid it by traveling through lower passes to reach Shahidullah or the Xaidulla in the upper valley of the Karakash River. The region is essentially desolate. Excavation activities was what attracted the team from the Indian Institutes of Science to follow the report on the site. What they found was beyond everything they could have dreamed of for they had struck the lottery of fossil hunting. The as yet to be named animal was buried deep within a block of stone which required delicate chiseling and hammering to break into. Professor Arun M. Kumar, the leader researcher of the Institute team, was the one to spot a slight discoloration in the otherwise smooth and even hue of the stone and ordered his staff to work through it. It took weeks to make a clearing big enough for the fossil to be displayed in its entirety; it was almost twice as huge as an adult tiger. Having decades of experience in the field, everybody present at the scene knew that this an extraordinary finding, even for a fossil. The fossil was removed from the rock with the help of a second excavation team due to it's delicate condition and sent to the New Delhi University Fossil Laboratory by cargo helicopter where a team of palaeontologists conducted a series of intensive studies on the ancient relic. The section of Karakoram Pass where the fossils were discovered by an Indian government survey team. So far three similar types were found. Upon first sight, the palaeontologists believed it to be the remains of an undiscovered species of mammal like dinosaur but inconsistencies in the structure of the being with that of two more unearthed fossils had left scientists puzzled by the mysterious origin of the ancient animals. Over the next few months, intensive research was performed on the fossil in order to uncover its origins. The results from the laboratory concluded that the fossil was once a land mammal dinosaur which modern paleontology had yet to uncover since nothing in any classification could be used to identify them. Professor Kumar noted, however, that the location is near the North China Craton and the Indian Shield. The geological structures, in particular the Indian Shield, of which parts extend to the southern coast, scientists believe, was once part of a first continent called Yidath that had lived some three billion years ago. These findings coincide with several new reports of other fossils from the Archean being found in Antarctica, China, Australia and now India. Each shares common remnants of landmasses from the prehistoric past. Professor Thomas R Wheeler, a fellow of New Delhi's Science Center and familiar with the finds, said "We now see more evidence of "A Commentary on the Book of Gates" basis not in religion but in actual science. As more years go by, the finds are proof of Yidath, Jebidiah Smith (the 19th Century Oxford Professor who first wrote of the Archean continent) and the ancient world from which all things on Earth came. Astounding," he remarked. The structure of the creature had thick, squamous skin thickened by age and exposure to the ancient elements, large jagged teeth akin to those of the legendary megalodon shark and claws similar in nature to the talons of raptors attached to hoofed feet. Large horns crowned the massive head. Artist conception of the yet to be named Archean animal. The combination of said features piqued the curiosity of the scientists all the more; this entity seemed to have all the attributes meticulously designated by natural selection which would have made it the dominating predator in every food chain during its Archean time. In other words, if this creature were to be alive in our era, it would be an apex predator with no competition for the title. The question which the remarkable fossil silently posed to the team of scientists was what other creatures could have possibly existed during its time for nature to decide to equip it with such extraordinary, predacious features. “Even in a world of ever-evolving science which consistently brings forth new subject matters which amaze us, this discovery is a phenomenon,” said Dr. Sam Veles, an associate of the research team of the New Delhi palaeontologists examining the skeleton at the university. The discovery of this fossil is one that has changed the course of paleontological studies by suggesting that colossal predators almost the same age as Earth roamed it billions of years before the existence of dinosaurs; the biggest land mammals known to mankind. Yidath? This may just be the remnants of the oldest forms of life on Earth. The Archean creature which was unearthed is only one of potentially many of its species and the final resting places of its kin are yet to be uncovered.