Eco Astronomy & Paleontology May Interpret the Harbored Life of the Planet Earth; A Study from Sri Lanka

 

Eco Astronomy which describes the origin, evolution and existence of life in the universe is being newly developed research area in Sri Lanka. Planetary habitability and harbored life on the earth can best be proved by paleontological evidences found from the earth and the extraterrestrial objects reached the earth(Mckay, 1996). As per the present knowledge on the life of the Universe, the earth is the only known place to harbor life. It depends on minimal conditions for the life such as temperature,water,radiation shielding,sunlight,oxygen, when a planet belongs to G2 type star forming like ours. With a rich diversity of species, Sri Lanka is one of the prominent islands where harbored life can be explored. In revealing the signsof the planetary habitability and harbor life of the planet earth, paleontological evidences give promising results. It provides a unique view into the history of life by showing the forms and features of life in the past and tells us how species have been evolved across the long period of the Earth’s history. Though the fossil records do not include every planet and animal that ever lived. This paper is to present some findings gathered from a study on modelling the harbored life in Sri Lanka. Our investigations were initially focused on Sabaragamu basin where famous fossilized Rathnapura fauna have been recorded by Deraniyagala (1958). The gathered fossils (50 samples) found from alluvial sedimentary deposits of gem pits were identified according to the special anatomical characters comparing with the similar species recorded in the literature. In addition sediment samples collected from gem pits where those fossils were found were used for sedimnetalogical analysis. According to the results, Panthera tigris or Panthera leo sinhaleyus, Rinoceros sinhaleyus, Bibos sinhaleyus, Crocodylu spp., Rusa unicolor and Elepas maximus sinhaleyus are the presently identified fossilized fauna from Rathnapura basin. Hence it can be thought that harbored life in Sri Lanka is possibly evidenced by these extinct species recorded as roaming during the Pleistocene Epoch. But the absolute ages of harboring period must yet to be estimated. The characteristics of the fossils and the sedimentology of the sedimentary deposits infer a wet warm condition during the Pleistocene Epoch but any abrupt change in local paleoclimate that caused the extinction cannot clearly be identified so far. One possible cause of extinction we suggest here is extensive hunting by prehistoric people roamed in and around the area.Further research from Sri Lanka in future will be contributed largely for this developing field of Eco Astronomy

Keywords:      Eco Astronomy, Harbored Life, Sabaragamuwa Basin, Fossils, Pleistocene, Planetary Habitability, Alluvial Sedimentary Deposits, Earth

Research By :Paleontology & Astrobiology By Aravinda Ravibhanu

Aravinda Ravibhanu Sumanarathna

Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology-University of Kelaniya

Facaulty of Enviroment & natural Science -University Southamopton