India was not isolated

The study of the remains of ancient insects enclosed inside pieces of Indian amber allowed scientists to conclude that 50-52 million years ago Hindustan was not completely isolated from other continents, as was previously thought. Apparently, the “acquaintance” of India and Eurasia took place much earlier than is commonly believed.

According to geologists, the Indian subcontinent drifted as a separate entity for approximately 100 million years, breaking away from the mainland Gondwana, while organisms found in amber dating back to this period are related to species found in northern Europe, Australia, New Guinea and tropical America. The researchers report this in an article ( http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1007407107 ) published in the online edition of the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . One of the study's authors, David Grimaldi, curator of invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, explained that all this also indicates the presence of unidentified connections between India and Asia in those ancient times.

M.B.