The fossils are believed to be of Dickinsonia found in 2021 at Bhimbetka Rock Shelter near Bhopal. file | Photo credit: The Hindu
Fossils of an extinct species of animals that scientists have revealed in a report Sensational discovery from India’s Bhimbetka rock shelter in 2021 False alarm has been detected.
Acknowledged by Gregory Ritlack, lead author of the February 2021 paper that reported the discovery the new York Times After taking a closer look at the site they plan to correct their paper, it turns out that a rock has actually been waxed by a bee hive.
In March 2020, Dr. Retallack, professor of paleontology at the University of Oregon, and some other researchers were given a tour of the Bhimbetka Rock Shelter in Madhya Pradesh by members of the Geological Survey of India, when they visited India. To attend a conference.
according to there the new York Times, they chanced upon what looked like a 44-cm-wide fossil of Dickinsonia, an animal that lived at least 538 million years ago, in a cave. Dickinsonia fossils in other parts of the world have indicated that it was globular or oval shaped, somewhat flat, with rib-like structures radiating from a central pillar.
Dr. Retallack and his colleagues took photographs of the rock feature as they were not carrying their equipment, and with further analysis determined them to be Dickinsonia fossils. They published a paper in February 2021 describing their findings.
But when Joseph Meert, professor of geology at the University of Florida, visited the same Bhimbetka cave in December 2022, he found some discrepancies with other fossils.
Eventually, he was able to conclude that “the impression was produced by the decay of a modern beehive attached to a fractured rock surface”, as he wrote in his paper published in January 2023. When Dr. Ritlack was informed of these findings, he decided to correct his paper.
While the fossils were considered valid, they suggested that the youngest Upper Vindhya sediments were 540 million years old; Rock shelters are located in this area. But now that the finding has been overturned, Meert et al. wrote in his paper, “The age of the Upper Vindhyas… remains disputed.”