Now on display, the giant Baluchitherium roamed the forests of Balochistan

The Rs1.74 million fibreglass model was prepared in five pieces by artist Asim Mirza.


Waqas Naeem October 25, 2012

ISLAMABAD:


Over 20 million years ago, the largest land mammal in the world roamed around the Bugti hills of Balochistan.


The herbivorous Baluchitherium, which literally translates to the beast of Balochistan, was around 18 feet tall at the shoulder and weighed approximately 20 tons and is an extinct hornless ancestor of the modern rhinoceros.

The life-size model of one such animal, mounted at the Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH), was inaugurated by Science and Technology Minister Mir Changez Khan Jamali on Wednesday.

Jamali said the ministry is trying to establish linkages between scientists and entrepreneurs to promote science and technology in the country.

Ghazala Roohi, a PMNH curator and palaeontologist, said the presence of an herbivore mammal in Balochistan gives credence to the theory that the province was once covered with forests and there could be more undiscovered fossils there.

She said a more recent variety of the Baluchitherium was discovered in south-western China, which indicates a migratory pattern for these gigantic animals that might predate the formation of the Karakoram Range. This could be useful information for international geologists working on land mass migration theories, Roohi said.

The Baluchitherium fossils were excavated between 2000 and 2003 by a joint team of palaeontologists from University of Montpellier, France, and the PMNH, said Roohi, who was part of the excavation team.

She said the team was able to dig up 65% of the skeleton of a single Baluchitherium from Dera Bugti before work was abruptly stopped due to political and security issues in the area.

This was a major discovery given the fact that excavation missions to the region in the 20th century had only found partial fossils of the mammal such as a jaw and some parts of its feet, she said.

The team used technical facilities and laboratories at the Natural History Museum in Paris and University of Toulouse, France, to digitally reconstruct the shape and size of the mammal based on the excavated fossils, Roohi said.

The actual fossils are displayed at the Geological Survey of Pakistan museum in Quetta and the PMNH plans to bring a cast of the fossils to Islamabad for indoor display, she added.

The Rs1.74 million fibreglass model of the Baluchitherium was prepared in five pieces by Pakistani artist Asim Mirza in Karachi.

Earlier, Dr Manzoor Soomro, chairman of the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), briefed the audience about research projects undertaken by the PMNH.

He said that in addition to international collaborations for scientific research, the museum has a repository of around 600,000 specimens of the flora, fauna and minerals of Pakistan. The repository is being digitised so more researchers and people can utilise it. He said the Baluchitherium exhibit would help raise interest in science among students.

“The Baluchitherium exhibit is a good attraction and we are already seeing an increase in the number of visitors,” Soomro said.

He said the PSF is working on both research and display of Pakistan’s natural history despite financial constraints and limited funding. He appealed to Jamali to gather government support to complete the construction of the PMNH. Only two of the eight proposed blocks of the PMNH compound have been completed so far.

The blue whale exhibit, the fossils of which were found near Pasni, was also officially inaugurated at the ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2012.

COMMENTS (7)

ChachaDinosaur | 11 years ago | Reply Thanks ET for documenting MY TRIBE
Khalid Imtiaz | 11 years ago | Reply

At last the dinosaur reappeared though only as a model.

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