May 27, 2021
Interestingly, while there is only one species of Dugong, which thrives in the Indian marine waters today, there was an amazing diversity of these creatures in India in the pre-historic past. Studies conducted at IIT Roorkee by Prof Sunil Bajpai and his students and collaborators on fossilized remains of sea cows from the Kutch region of Gujarat show that India was home to at least 4 different species including some very primitive ones that lived in this region about 42 million years ago, and another 5 species that thrived about 20 million years ago.
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Ongoing studies show that the actual diversity could be even higher and India was a major centre of evolution and diversification in the past, not only for sea cows but also for other associated mammals such as whales”, said Prof. Bajpai, Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at IIT Roorkee.
School Web Desk
Roorkee, May 30
Sea cows, or Dugongs, are an endangered species of herbivorous marine mammals, which feed on seagrass in shallow coastal waters. Although protected in India under the