Siwalik Hills: A Storehouse of  Extinct Mammals

Photo courtesy: Author
Siwalik is the youngest Himalayan mountain belt, stretching from the river Indus in the west to the Brahmaputra in the east. The region is one the richest storehouses of antiquarian mammalian fossils in the world. 

Abstract: The Siwalik hills are known to be a storehouse of fossil mammals. The rocks entomb a variety of fossils of extinct mammals ranging in age from 16 to 6 million years. Important groups of mammals at various evolutionary stages which thrived during the deposition of the Siwalik rock strata are elephants, horses, cats, cattle, deer, giraffes, rats, pigs, hippopotamus, rhinoceroses and many others.

The author is a former Deputy Director General, Geological Survey of India, Lucknow. mishravijayp@gmail.com. The article should be cited as Mishra V. P., 2019. Siwalik Hills: A Storehouse of Extinct Mammals, Geography and You, 19(25 & 26): 80-85