Fossil of a Jurassic age sea-dwelling reptile found first time in India

Kutch : Indian scientists have discovered a fully preserved fossil of a Jurassic age sea-dwelling reptile known as the ‘fish lizard’ from a small village in Kutch, Gujarat.

The discovery has been published in PLOS ONE, a scientific journal, by a group of researchers who found the fossil in early 2016.

'Fish Lizard' fossil discovery happens to be the second largest discovery this year in India. Earlier, the scientists had discovered oldest plant fossil in India, a red algae from the Chitrakoot region in Madhya Pradesh, believed to be 1.6 billion years old.

“The discovery adds to the knowledge of ichthyosaur from the southern continents,” said Guntupalli Prasad, one of the authors of the study.

Ichthyosaur is a combination of two Greek words meaning fish and lizard, a name the reptile gets because of its fish-like appearance.

Such fossils have been earlier found in countries like America, Australia and Europe; but this is the first time something like this has been discovered in India.

The Gujarat fossil is believed to be belonging to Jurassic era that lasted about 200 to 250 million years ago.