Akal Wood Fossil Park

Akal Wood Fossil Park
Akal Wood Fossil Park is located in Rajasthan
Akal Wood Fossil Park
TypeFossil park
LocationAkal, Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan, India
Nearest cityJaisalmer
Coordinates26°49′30″N 71°02′24″E / 26.82500°N 71.04000°E / 26.82500; 71.04000[1]
Area21 hectares (52 acres)
Elevation247 m above mean sea level

Akal Wood Fossil Park is a National Geological Monument of India located in Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan.[2] It is also a Biodiversity Heritage Site.

It is 21 hectares in extent and is located in Akal village, 17–18 km southeast of Jaisalmer city, and 1 km off the NH-68 Jaisalmer-Barmer road, on a stretch of about 10 km2 of bare hillside.[3] The terrain is barren and rocky.

The park lies in Jaisalmer's fossil belt, a region noted to have the potential for geological parks.[4] Fossils and footprints of pterosaurs have been found in the nearby Thaiyat area.[5][6]

The park contains fossils of Pterophyllum, Ptilophyllum, Equisetites species and dicotyledonous wood and gastropod shells of the Early Jurassic period. There are about a dozen fossilised wood logs lying horizontally oriented in random directions, the largest of which is 13.4 m in length and 0.9 m in width.[7] There are a total of 25 petrified tree trunks. The fossils date back 180 million years.[3]

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) declared the site a National Geological Monument in 1972. The park was maintained by GSI till 1985, when maintenance was handed over to the Forest Department of Government of Rajasthan. Now, the park is maintained by the authorities of the Desert National Park. The exposed tree trunks have been protected by iron grill cages with tin sheet roofing.[1]

  1. ^ a b Ranawat, Pushpendra Singh (March 2016). "A Monograph on National Geoheritage Monuments of India" (PDF). Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. pp. 91–93. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  2. ^ "Geo-Heritage Sites". Press Information Bureau. Ministry of Mines, Government of India. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Wood Fossil Park Jaisalmer". Jaisalmer.org.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  4. ^ Bhatia, Vimal (19 December 2016). "Jaisalmer has potential for geological parks". Times of India.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference flyingdino was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Bhatia, Vimal (13 January 2014). "Pterosaurs footprints found in Jaisalmer basin". Times of India. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  7. ^ "Fossil Wood Parks". Geological Survey of India. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2017.