Rajasthan may once have had plenty of water

Once upon a time, there was no dearth of water in Rajasthan, a recent discovery has indicated.

A team of geologists from the Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur discovered a cluster of trace fossils of aquatic insect mayfly in Rajasthan's Barmer believed to be from Palaeocene age, which is from 63 million to 58 million years ago.

The fossils, which are first ever such reporting from India and fourth in the world, were discovered from the Barmer Hill Formation (BHF) in the Barmer Basin, Western Rajasthan.

The study described the aquatic insect mayfly fossils as "small, tightly packed, lozenge or almond-shaped pouch-like burrows that have a long axis terminating in rounded to angular ends, preserved probably as iron-oxide rind casts of wood fragments and logs".

The discovery indicated that there was no dearth of water in western Rajasthan during Palaeocene age, the geologists said.

The study is published in the April edition of Current Science.