India was still a part of the supercontinent called Gondwana some 140 million years ago. The Gondwana was composed of modern South America, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia. When this supercontinent split up, a tectonic plate composed of India and modern Madagascar started to drift away. Then, India split from Madagascar and drifted north-eastward with a velocity of about 20 cm/year. Nowadays, India is still moving in the same direction but with a lower velocity of about 4 cm/year, due to the resistance of the Eurasian plate.
Jamtveit and his colleagues estimate that the lost microcontinent, which they have dubbed Mauritia, was about a quarter of the size of Madagascar. Furthermore, based on a recalculation of how the ancient continents drifted apart, the scientists concluded that Mauritia was once a tiny part of a much larger “supercontinent” that included India and Madagascar, called Rodinia.
Fossils Indicate Rajasthan’s Desert Was Underwater 47 Million Years Ago, The presence of the marine fossils of Middle Eocene period indicates that about 47 million years ago, there was a sea in this area according to the experts. There are stratified rocks contain fossils embedded in them. Shells, pebbles and marine fossils are found in the limestone beds of the tallest and youngest mountain ranges of the Himalaya, a geological evidence that proves that the Himalayas rose from the Tethys Sea.
The presence of the marine fossils of Middle Eocene period indicates that about 47 million years ago, there was a sea in this area, he said, adding that faunal record shows similarity with earlier reported fauna of middle Eocene Harudi formation, Kachhch Basin and Gujarat, thus representing similar shallow marine deposition under tropical-temperate conditions.
Especially in Nepal, Ammonites (sea animals having shells) are found in large numbers in the Kali Gandaki River. These, when opened, reveal the presence of typically ribbed spiral forms — creatures that must have lived in the seas 240-265 million years ago.
The Eocene Epoch constitutes the middle part of the Paleogene period (65-23 million years ago), preceded by the Pale47 Mocene and succeeded by the Oligocene epoch (34-23 million years ago); all of these periods and epochs were part of the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago).
At the moment, Australia is traveling north, suggesting that it will one day sideswipe Asia and collide with Japan, Korea and eastern China. Meanwhile, Africa is rotating counterclockwise into Europe where it will drive a Himalayan-scale mountain range skyward. Scientists remain unsure what will happen to the Americas, leaving two contentious theories for Pangea 2.0: Either the Atlantic will stop growing and one day close again, or the Atlantic will continue to expand. Both create very different futures.
