Prof Ashok Sahni and Dr Ashu Khosla from PU, along with Dr G V Prasad, Omkar Verma and Varun Parmar from Jammu and Kashmir University made the discovery at Dindori in Madhya Pradesh. Their paper has been published in the US science journal Science.

Prior to the findings, the oldest ungulate mammals were known to be around 63 million years old and their origin was believed to be in North America.

“Teeth are characteristic of any animal. The size of the animal and the type can be revealed from it. The species present then would have been a little bigger than a hare and was a herbivore. This was the time when the subcontinent was an island drifting towards Asia,” says Dr Sahni.

The mammal has been named Kharmerungulatum vanvaleni after the Kharmer river that flows in the area.

“This is the first record of mammals from the time of dinosaurs. Dinosaur eggshells and other fossils were also discovered here. The horizon has immense significance,” he added.

Ungulates include antelopes, horses, rhinos, cows, goats, etc. Dr Khosla first discovered the site in 1998-99 during his first Young Scientist Project by the Department of Science and Technology.

Describing his experience, Dr Khosla says, “I roamed in the area for 20 days trying to find a suitable location. At later stages, other members of the team joined me. We took rocks and broke them into pieces. The rocks have clay sediments in them. The pieces were dipped into kerosene for a couple of hours. Then these were soaked in water. It turned into slurry. This was then sieved and a variety of fossils of dinosaur eggs, crocodiles, turtles, fish, and lizards, etc., were discovered. We sieved around 3,000 kg of rocks.”

Recalling an incident, when the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the area caught a sample, Dr Khosla says, “The DC refused to return the sample, assuming we were digging out gold from the area. It was later when the authorities from Jammu and Kashmir University called that it was let off. The threat of wild animals loomed large.”