Ancient insect find raises questions about India's origins
The discovery of a trove of insects preserved in amber raises new questions about whether India was always part of the Asian continent, researchers said in a study published on Monday.
The insects – bees, termites, spiders, and flies – had been entombed in the vast Cambay deposit in western India for some 50 million years.
Scientists had long assumed that India was for a time an isolated island-continent, and consequently expected that the insects found in the amber would differ significantly from those elsewhere in Asia.
But researchers wrote in their study appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the insects were not unique as would be expected....
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The insects – bees, termites, spiders, and flies – had been entombed in the vast Cambay deposit in western India for some 50 million years.
Scientists had long assumed that India was for a time an isolated island-continent, and consequently expected that the insects found in the amber would differ significantly from those elsewhere in Asia.
But researchers wrote in their study appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the insects were not unique as would be expected....