Gujarat was home to snake that ate dinos

About 67 million years ago, in the Jurassic period, Gujarat was home to a snake that preyed on dinosaur eggs and hatchlings even though they belonged to the largest of the reptilian species, says a study recently published in the Public Library of Sciences (PLoS) journal.

In 1987, Dr Dhananjay Mohabey — the incumbent Director of Palaeontology in Geological Survey of India (GSI) — had found an interesting fossil in a large dinosaur nesting ground by a riverbed near the present-day Dholi Dungri village bordering Balasinor taluka of Kheda district.

Tests have now shown it to be a fossil of a 3.5 metre long snake — a prehistoric cousin of a python or a rattle-snake — preying on a half-metre long sauropod.

Mohabey said: “We found a large number of nesting grounds along Balasinor taluka and parts of bordering Panchmahals district in 1981. Researchers Jeff Wilson and Jason Head of the University of Michigan had accompanied me then. Earlier, I thought it was the fossil of a young sauropod (Brontosaurus and other similar species, considered among the biggest animals to roam the earth about 60 million years ago). We did not have the requisite technology to determine if it was really a snake. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between GSI and the University of Michigan. After testing the fossil in the specialised labs of the university, it was ascertained to be that of a snake.” Mohabey described the fossil as a snake wrapped inside a dinosaur’s nest, coiled around an egg between a recently-hatched sauropod and some other eggs. “The snake was possibly buried in a barrage of mud and sand while preying on the half-metre long hatchling and the eggs, resulting in its complete preservation in a sedimentary rock,” Mohabey said. The snake has now been identified as Sanajeh indicus. The palaeontologist said Rahioli village in Balasinor taluka and parts of Panchmahals district have the distinction of being home to the most unique pieces of evidence of dinosaur activity in the world.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gujarat-was-home-to-snake-that-ate-dinos/586064/