Palaeontologist hands over marine fossils for display at museum coming up in Perambalur district

PERAMBALUR: Paleontologist-cum-researcher and the Head of Education Department in Mleiha Archaeological Centre R Nirmal Rajah, on Sunday, handed over fossils of rare marine life species found in various countries to Collector P Sri Venkada Priya. It is set to be displayed at a museum coming up in the district.

Following this, Nirmal said, "Perambalur, many billion years ago, is said to have been surrounded by sea. Over time, marine life, plants, and trees turned into fossils. Also, there is a coniferous tree that was discovered in 1940 by geologist MS Krishnan from Thanjavur district. This tree is about 12-crore-years-old. Snail-like creatures, called ammonites - a marine species that became extinct about 12 crore years ago, too are found in Perambalur. Keeping this in mind, the Collector put her own efforts to set up a separate museum for ammonites. Its work is underway in the old taluk office. As I frequently visit different countries and research on fossils, I donated the collector with four ammonites from Madagascar (10-crore-years-old), one trilobite from Bolivia (50-crore-years-old) and one shark teeth from Perambalur (10-crore-years-old) for display at the ammonites museum." 

By displaying this at the museum, visitors get to see the ammonites and other fossils from here and other countries, providing them the opportunity to learn, Nirmal added.  

"Beautiful to look at, ammonites come in a variety of shapes. We still have to get more ammonites from different countries and put them for display. Ammonites have a shell and it allow us to find out which year the rocks belong to," he said. 

The donated trilobite has the full-body, Nirmal said. Shark teeth was found in the district 10-crore -years-old, he added. So this will be the first time in India that an exclusive museum will be set up for such ammonites, which will create awareness. 

A Perambalur district administration official said, "The work to set up the museum is carried out in full swing. We will complete the work in three more months and steps will be taken to open the museum."