Conclave on E - Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany

<strong>Conclave</strong> onEvolution: Life’s Continuum15th November, 2009CelebratingBicentennial Birth Anniversary&Sesquicentennial of Origin of SpeciesBirbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany53 University Road, Lucknow 226 007 (U.P.), INDIA

<strong>Conclave</strong> on Evolution: Life’s ContinuumOrganized byBirbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotanyon 15 th November 2009Organizing CommitteeDr. N. C. Mehrotra, ChairmanDr. A. Rajanikanth, Co-ChairmanDr. Mukund Sharma, Organizing SecretaryDr. Madhav Kumar, MemberDr. Amit K. Ghosh, MemberPublished byThe DirectorBirbal Sahni Institute of PalaeobotanyLucknow 226 007INDIAPhone : +91-522-2740008/2740011/2740399/2740413Fax : +91-522-2740098/2740485E-mail : director@bsip.res.inpublication@bsip.res.inWebsite : http://www.bsip.res.in© BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANY, LUCKNOW 226 007, (U.P.), INDIAProduced by Publication Unit, BSIPJoint Editor: Dr. Mukund SharmaSupporting Staff: Shri R.L. Mehra & Shri S.R. AliPrinted at : Army Printing Press, 33 Nehru Road, Sadar, LucknowNovember 2009

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMand ecology on the diversity of these leaf genera. Among the glossopterids,the genus Glossopteris has maximum number of species exceeding one hundredand fifty and exhibits wide range of variations in shape, size and venationpattern. More than forty five fertile genera (bearing both ovule andmicrosporangia) have been assigned to glossopterids. Based on leafarchitectural pattern, species of Glossopteris are grouped into four categories:(i) Rectipaxillate (parallel) veins with few meshes (ii) Dichotomo reticulate (iii)Dichotomo anastomose reticulate and (iv) Anastomose reticulate. Interrelationshipamong the species as well as with other groups of plants isobserved. The detailed morpho-taxonomical analysis of the Glossopterisleaves will help to build up a more acceptable cladistic analysis related toevolution of angiosperms.Among the glossopterid genera Glossopteris is the most understoodplant. Both vegetative and reproductive organs of glossopterids possesscharacters comparable to different groups of gymnosperms. Incidentally,the wood genera of glossopterids show features of conifers.Each group of the late Palaeozoic gymnosperm includingglossopterids has adopted special features in their course of evolution.Gymnosperm is the immediate ancestor of the angiosperms. As such,attention has been given to each and every group of gymnosperms totrace the possible ancestory of angiosperms. However, the glossopteridshave acquired an important position in the consideration of evolution ofangiosperms both in the morphological and cladistic analyses. In thepresent context, the recent knowledge on the habit and habitat, diversitypattern, inter-relationship and evolutionary significance of theglossopterids have been taken into consideration.3

BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYDavid L. DilcherFlorida Museum of Natural History,University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USAEmail: dilcher@flmnh.ufl.eduDr David Leonard Dilcher is presently a Graduate Research Professorat the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida,USA. He received B.S. and M.S. from the University of Minnesota andPh.D. from the Yale University and is a member of the Indiana Universityand University of Florida. Twice he has been awarded GuggenheimFellowship. Major questions that are being addressed by his currentresearch include the origin of the Flowering Plants and Global ClimateChange. He has authored about 230 scientific publications in reviewedjournals. These include about 9 papers published in Science with 4 Coverpictures in Science and about 8 papers published in PNAS (Proceedingsof the National Academy of Science). Dr Dilcher is an Elected Member4

BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYDianne EdwardsSchool of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, UKEmail: edwardsD2@cardiff.ac.ukBorn in Swansea, in South Wales Dianne Edwards won a scholarshipto Girton College and studied Botany and Geology at CambridgeUniversity. She learnt palaeobotanical trade with Harlan Banks at CornellUniversity and completed Ph.D. on Silurian and Lower Devonian plantsin Cambridge under the supervision of morphologist, Kenneth Sporne.Following a couple of postdoctoral fellowships, she became a lecturer inCardiff University where she has spent all her academic career, becominga Research Professor in 1992. She was elected to the Royal Society ofLondon in 1996 and Edinburgh in 2001. Her contributions outside theUniversity have included membership of the Council of the CountrysideCouncil for Wales, our national conservation society, and, currently, theNatural History Museum. She was a Founder Trustee and Botanical6

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMAdvisor to the National Botanic Garden of Wales which opened as a Millenniumproject in 2000. In 1999, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s BirthdayHonours List for services to Botany. Her work on various aspects of earlyland plants have taken her to North and South America, Australia and China –and in her official retirement, which began in September this year, she hopesto continue this research.ABSTRACTThe colonisation of the land: the struggle for survivalIn that it provides evidence for the origination, diversification andextinction of groups of organisms through geological time, the fossilrecord is indispensable to evolutionary theory. This was appreciated byDarwin although he showed little interest in palaeobotany. However hedid discover a petrified forest of Araucarioxylon in Argentina andcollected 25 specimens comprising permineralised, mainly conifer, woodin S. America and Australia as well as some Nothofagus leaves duringthe voyage of the Beagle. Indeed one of his most quoted phrases waspalaeobotanical. His frustration at the lack of evidence to explain awaythe sudden appearance of angiosperms similar to modern forms led tohis “abominable mystery”. The mystery has been solved to some extentby the discovery of fossil flowers, many very small and called mesofossils.Similarly sized fossils, this time from the mid-Palaeozoic, reveal excellentpreservation of anatomical features which were adaptations for thestruggle for survival in the water-stressed environments encountered bythe early land plants - plants which eventually gave rise to the ferns,gymnosperms and angiosperms that often dominate land surfaces today.The earliest representatives were morphologically very simple, essentiallycomprising collections of smooth, bifurcating stems terminated bysporangia showing variation in shape. Further variation is seen in theornament of the spores they contain, but the selective advantages of suchdiversity is beyond our comprehension. However the competition forlight and space led to innovations involving greater height, light andnutrient harvesting, and reproductive compacity in a number of lineagesof Lower Devonian plants, eventually leading to arborescent and seedhabits. Thus the colonisation of the land was a gradual process in which7

BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYplants of ever increasing size and complexity involving finely tuned adaptationsreplaced each other over very long periods of time in true Darwinian fashion.The pioneering vegetation had a major impact on the atmosphere in theDevonian, drawing down CO 2in photosynthesis and chemical rock weathering,and so transformed the greenhouse world of the Ordovician into the icehouseconditions of the Carboniferous with a global climate very similar to that oftoday. It also created organic rich soils which were perfect habitats forpioneering land animals, but sadly, as far as we are aware and returning toDarwin, no earthworms.8

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMSyed A. Jafar5-B, Whispering Meadows, Haralur Road, Bangalore-560034Email: syeda_jafar@yahoomail.comDr Syed A. Jafar, is a freelance consultant and researcher currentlybased in Bangalore. He had his early education in Lucknow andtook B.Sc and M.Sc (Geology) degrees from University of Lucknow. Hedid a Post-Graduate Course in Applied Micropalaeontology at theUniversity of Vienna, Austria, and took Ph.D Degree from the JWGUniversity, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His principal work hasconcerned with revision of over 100 species of Miocene CalcareousNannofossils from the Island of Rotti, Indonesia, and in later years furtherexpanded its application in several Mesozoic-Cenozoic basins of theworld. More recently, he was a Consultant to Oil and Natural GasCorporation Ltd. and now occupies himself with issues of scientifictemper, climate change and evolutionary concepts. He was a Member of9

10BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYConstructional Morphology (KOMO) Research Group at the University ofTuebingen, Germany. He is well known for his work on ConstructionalMorphology of dinosaur egg, living Nannoplankton and coal formingGlossopteris floristic. He was awarded several visiting researchfellowships and worked in Aligarh, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Vienna,Budapest, Prague, Tuebingen, Wuerzburg, Munich, Zurich and Frankfurtam Main. Dr Jafar has published several scientific papers mainly in thefield of Nannofossils and is author of a book published by ElsevierPublishing Company, Amsterdam. He is member of several academicsocieties and is on online panel of McKinsey & Company.ABSTRACTWhat Darwin missed: relative magnitude dictatessurvival-extinctionDescent of Life forms as understood under the hypothesis of modernNeo-Darwinian paradigm incorporates a vast world of microscopicand submicroscopic nature in the backdrop of advances made in molecularbiology, Genetics, Genome and biochemistry. Nothing is big or of smallmagnitude except by comparison; there is no absolute size in universe, itis boundless towards both big and small. While examining the survivalextinctionpattern of the species of fossil Gonoatites in Late Devovianmass extinction boundary (364 Ma Frasnian-Famennian) and PlanktonicForaminifera and Calcareous Nannofossils at (65 Ma Maastrichtian-Danian) mass extinction boundary, three distinct relative magnitude adultentities could be picked up as a working model, viz. Small, Medium andLarge including Giant. Small magnitude world of virus, Bacteria andProtists displaying most rapid turnover rates backed by their numericalstrength and interplay of struggle-cooperation, exert a powerful influenceon macro- and microbiosphere despite being least affected by Gravity,which is seen as manifestation of universal Time-Space geometricconstraint. A critical glance at such pattern of survival-extinction revealsthat: (1) relatively Small, Medium and Large forms may become extinctbefore or near mass extinction boundary leading to completeextermination of a group, (2) Large including Giant forms under severeconstraint of Space-Time, represent evolutionary dead ends and invariably

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMfail to produce any offspring and prior to extinction may or may not produceneotenic forms just before or after the boundary (Disappearing). (3) Mediumand Small magnitude forms also go extinct but a few manage to cross over theboundary; the Medium ones display normal rate of change often producingliving fossils (Crossing over). The Small forms cross over boundary anddramatically display most rapid rate of innovation to restore dwindlingbiodiversity (appearing). The relative Magnitude model finds application inSocial, Economic and biologic fields.11

BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYJ. Shen-MillerIGPP Center for the Study of Evolution & the Origin of Life (CSEOL)University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90049, USAE-mail: shenmiller@lifesci.ucla.eduJ. Shen-Miller is a Senior Scientist, Center for the Study of Evolutionand the Origin of Life, and Research Biologist, Department of Ecologyand Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles. Shereceived her undergraduate education at Washington State University,and her Ph.D., in Horticulture and Botany, at Michigan State University.After serving as Botanist in plant physiology and radiation biology atArgonne National Laboratory, Illinois, she was Associate Director of theMetabolic Biology Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation,Washington, DC, and Research Chemist (Department of Chemistry andBiochemistry) and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research at UCLA.An active contributor to studies of plant hormones, space biology,12

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMand the developmental and physiochemical biology of the seeds of SacredLotus, Nelumbo nucifera-notable for their exceptionally long-termviability, up to 1300 years-she has authored 180 scientific papers.Additionally, she is a published poet and has recently edited a majorwork (My Two Years in Nanking, Reminiscences of Inyeening Shen;iUniverse: NY, 2009) in which her mother recounts the years of 1946-48when her father, Dr Shen Yi, was Mayor of Nanking, the NationalistCapital of China.An elected Member of National Science Honors Societies and aCharter Member of the American Society of Gravitational and SpaceBiology, the American Society of Photobiology, and the Association ofWomen in Science, she has served on major committees and EditorialBoard of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Associationof Women in Science, the American Society of Plant Physiologists andthe Botanical Society of America.ABSTRACTExceptional longevity of fossil seeds of sacred lotus,Nelumbo nucifera – Survival of the fittestSeeds of sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, are among the longest viabilityknown in plants, 1300 years, ranking them as prime examples ofDarwinian evolution’s “survival of the fittest.” Though native to Asia,by the 1700s Nelumbo was known throughout Europe, and Charles Darwinand his forbearers had become steeped in its lore and science: in 1789,Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmas Darwin, authored a long poem, The Lovesof the Plants, in which Nelumbo is prominently featured; botanist JohnWedgewood, Darwin’s uncle, recommended an attractive Nelumbo motifin the famed Wedgewood China, a complete dinner-set of which waspurchased by Darwin’s parents in 1807 (and is today on display inDarwin’s home in Kent, outside of London); and Charles Darwin, himself,was a well-versed botanist, an expertise evident not only in On the Originof Species (1859) but also among his botanic scripts, i.e. The Power ofMovement in Plants (1880). As Darwin’s interest expressed in the Vitalityof Seeds (1843), here is discussed, the remarkable long-term viability ofNelumbo seeds, now documented for many radiocarbon-dated specimens13

BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYof hundreds of years in age, is attributable to their thick sturdy pericarpimpervious to water; to the presence at germination of a chlorophyllbearingembryo axis primed for photosynthesis; the emergence of shootsbefore roots, characters that promote selection of suitable environmentand rapid growth of developing seedlings; and of abundant heat-stable(to 100 o C) proteins that function in intracellular protection and damagerepair.14

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMVidyanand NanjundiahCentre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, BangaloreEmail: vidya@ces.iisc.ernet.inVidyanand Nanjundiah had his high school and college education inBombay (B.Sc. in Physics from St. Xavier’s College). He went onto study Physics at the University of Chicago and obtained a Ph.D. Hespent one year thereafter in the Hubrecht Laboratorium, Utrecht, workingwith axolotl embryos, and three years at the Max Planck Institut,Tuebingen and Biozentrum, Basel, carrying out experiments on signallingin cellular slime mould amoebae, in both cases as a post-doctoral fellow.He joined the Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore in 1976 and he moved after four years to the Molecular BiologyGroup, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. From there hereturned to the Indian Institute of Science, where he is now. His currentresearch interests include the development of biological patterns and15

BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYevolution of social behaviour (with special emphasis on the cellular slime moulds)and the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.ABSTRACT150 Years after The Origin of SpeciesThe publication 150 years ago of The Origin of Species marks awatershed in the history of science. Among the many reasons forsaying so, two are well known. First, the book established that livingforms were products of organic evolution, a process of transformationthat involved modification by descent and diversification. Second, inThe Origin Charles Darwin suggested - as Alfred Russel Wallace didindependently - a means by which evolution could take place. It wasgiven the name natural selection. Natural selection is the only explanationwe have for the most striking feature of the living world, namely that itsoccupants appear to be products of design. Looking back, Darwin andWallace’s discovery of natural selection can be seen as the first step inour recognition of life as a property of matter and of biology as the scienceof living matter.Natural selection is not the only way in which evolution occurs. Infact for it to take place, the traits possessed by living creatures need tosatisfy certain stringent requirements. The requirements are not obvious,which is what makes evolutionary biology an empirical science. Theessence of natural selection can be summarised in terms of three features:‘random variation’, ‘heritability’ and ‘differential fitness’. The talk willbegin with an overview of what Darwin accomplished in The Origin andwill end by highlighting our view of the evolutionary process. In between,by way of illustration, a specific example of Darwin’s pluralistic approachwill be discussed, namely the comprehensive manner in which he tacklesthe serious problem thrown up by the existence of apparently altruisticbehaviour.16

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMRajiv NigamNational Institute of OceanographyDona Paula-403004, Goa, IndiaEmail: nigam@nio.orgDr Rajiv Nigam is presently Joint Director and Head, PalaeoclimateProject, Geological Oceanography Division, National Institute ofOceanography, Goa. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from theUniversity of Lucknow and Ph.D. and D.Sc. from Aligarh MuslimUniversity. He was awarded BOYSCAST Fellowship to visit Woods HoleOceanographic Institution, U.S.A., in 1990, National Mineral Award in1993, CSIR Young Scientist Award in 1989 and Krishnan Medal by IndianGeophysical Union in 1994.He is an active contributor to the Marine Micropalaeontology. Hehas authored 106 Scientific Research Papers, edited 5 books andcompleted 37 technical reports. He has guided 9 Ph.D. students.He is a recipient of NORAD Fellowship by Norway Government.17

18BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYDr Nigam is a Fellow of the Geological Society of India, the PalaeontologicalSociety of India, Indian Association for Limnology and Oceanography, Societyof Biosciences and South Asian Association of Economic Geologists. He is apast president of 18 th Indian Colloquium on Micropalaeontology andStratigraphy. He received award for his book on Monsoon by Ministry ofEarth Sciences, Govt. of India.ABSTRACTClimatically controlled changes in reproductivebehaviour of benthic foraminifera: A precursor toevolutionAmongst many microfossils, foraminifera appeared very early ingeological time scale and acquired an important position due to theirapplicability in solving various ocean related problems. Starting withnaked ancestor in Cambrian they diversified maximum in the Devonian.In the beginning most of them were benthic in nature and planktonicforms appeared only during Late Jurassic. Foraminifera evolved in anevolving ocean. Haq and Boersma gave an excellent account of theevolution and stated “…changing features of the hydrosphere demonstratethat we should relate the evolution of foraminifera to the constantlychanging face of a dynamic earth.”There are many morphological features associated with evolutionin foraminifera, like septations, arrangements of chambers (biserial,triserial and multiserial), different coiling arrangements (planispiral totrochospiral and dextral to sinistral), nature of wall structures, etc. Theyevolved by adaptation, which allow them to cope with changingenvironment regimes, exploit new environments, diversify and functionefficiently. One of the most prominent methods of adaptation inforaminifera involves reproduction.It is well known that the shape, size and proloculus diameter offoraminiferal tests belonging to the same species are different and broadlyseparated into two types. This dimorphism is related to variations inreproductive behaviour and the two forms are known as microsphericand megalospheric. Many species show alternate generations. As a rule,the number of microspheric forms (formed through sexual reproduction)

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMJapan, Spain, France and Korea. He has over 200 publications including overhalf dozen in prestigious journals such as Nature and Science. He has workedat the American Museum Natural History, New York; appointed SmithsonianFellow at the National Museum Natural History, Washington D.C., and taughtas a visiting Professor at Bonn University, Germany. He has keen interest inthe popularization of science and has been involved in several interactionsprogrammes with students from schools and colleges. Currently he is consultantto the Evolution Park and Gallery at Science City, Kapurthala.ABSTRACTIndian Amber: Evolving Insects and Microbiota on thedrifting platePresent day biodiversity is overwhelmingly dominated by insect,arthropod and plant species in comparison to other groups oforganisms. The fossil record of insects though not poor, is still far shortof being representative of the great diversification that exists today. Theevolutionary record therefore is better for those organisms which have abetter chance of being preserved and differs for different groups. Amberprovides great insight not only to the under-represented elements of fossilfreshwater ecosystems but also raises the possibility of recording terrestrialmicrobiota (terrestrial rhizopods, nematodes, parasites for example) thathave a low preservation potential.The find of amber in Palaeocene-Lower Eocene western marginlignite deposits in the last five years has opened a new window not onlyfor the chemistry and stratigraphic implications of the amber, but also inclassical terms, the taxonomy, relationships and evolutionary history ofembedded insect inclusions in the light of geodynamic framework of theIndian Plate. In addition, amber inclusions shed light on modern dayinsect diversity of India which is largely composed of endemic forms.Systematic study of Indian amber nodules has shown that there arefossil records from the Cretaceous to the Miocene. Amber is a polymerthat can resist degradation in some sedimentary environments and canoccur as primary or reworked nodules. The amber from the Vastan LigniteMine has recently been shown to be Type II Resin, which is, producedfrom an angiosperm source and has the biomolecular signature of a dipterocarp21

BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYproducer. The amber is unique in that it preserves three dimensional bodyfossils, both plants, insects and microbiota inclusions. Exceptional preservationallows for palaeo-histological studies of dissolved and removed body fossilsusing electron microscopy. The Indian Eocene amber, therefore, provides afine-scale evolutionary record of embedded inclusions in a manner that imprintor carbonized remains do not allow.22

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMJ. William SchopfDepartment of Earth and Space Sciences,University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095Email: schopf@ess.ucla.eduDirector of the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin ofLife at the University of California, Los Angeles, J. William Schopfreceived his undergraduate training in geology at Oberlin College, Ohio,and his Ph.D. degree, in biology, from Harvard University. A Member ofthe UCLA Faculty since 1968, he has been the honored recipient of allhis university’s campus-wide faculty awards: the Distinguished TeacherAward, the Academic Senate’s Faculty Research Lectureship, and UCLA’sGold Shield Prize for Academic Excellence.An active contributor to his science, he has authored some 340scientific publications; has edited ten volumes, including two nationalprize-winning monographs on early evolution, his primary research23

24BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYinterest; and is author of Cradle of Life, The Discovery of Earth’s EarliestFossils, awarded Phi Beta Kappa’s 2000 National Science Book Prize.The first to discover ancient (Precambrian) cellular fossil microorganismsin stromatolitic sediments of Australia (1965), South Africa (1966), Russia(1977), India (1978), and China (1984), his contributions have beenrecognized internationally: he has been an Alexander von Humboldt PrizeFellow in Germany, is one of fifty Foreign Members of the LinneanSociety of London, is the first-elected Foreign Member of the ScientificPresidium of the A.N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry of the RussianAcademy of Sciences, and he serves on the Scientific Council(Curatorium) of the Geobio-Center of Ludwig Maximilians UniversitätMünchen.Dr Schopf is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Artsand Sciences, and is Past-President of the International Society for theStudy of the Origin of Life (ISSOL). Honored by the American Academyof Achievement, listed by Los Angeles Times Magazine as among southernCalifornia’s most outstanding scientists of the 20 th Century, and selectedin 2006 by the Botanical Society of America as a Centennial Scientist, heis recipient of ISSOL’s Oparin Medal, the U.S. National Academy ofSciences’ Thompson Medal, and U.S. National Science Board’s WatermanMedal; twice he has been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.ABSTRACTFluorescence (CLSM) and molecular-structural(Raman) imagery: New methods to investigate thePrecambrian history of lifeAmong all problems confronting the study of permineralized(petrified) Precambrian microscopic fossils, two stand out, the needfor (1) accurate documentation of their three-dimensional morphology,and (2) direct analysis of their chemical composition and that of theirassociated mineral matrix. These problems can be addressed effectivelyby the use of two techniques recently introduced to paleobiology: ConfocalLaser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) and Raman Imagery. Thesetechniques, both of which are non-intrusive and non-destructive, can

CONCLAVE ON EVOLUTION: LIFE’S CONTINUUMBhatnagar Fellowship awarded by the CSIR 2009.He is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academyof Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy ofAgricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences. He is alsoFellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy.ABSTRACTMystery of our originsSince the dawn of civilization Man has been asking this question whoare we? Where have we come from? Until 1858 it was universalbelief that man is special creation of God. In 1858 based on phenotypictransition of various organisms including plant and animal species CharlesDarwin proposed the theory of evolution and wrote a book on ‘Origin ofSpecies’. Eight years later, Darwin in 1871 wrote a book on ‘The Descentof Man’. He declared that the chimpanzee and gorilla are our closestliving relatives based on anatomical similarities and predicted that theearliest ancestors of humans would turn up in Africa, where our ape kinlive today. Today it is widely accepted view that modern human divergedfrom a common ancestor of chimpanzee and human nearly 6-7 millionyears ago. Based on fossil records found in Africa it is now believed thatmodern human originated from a single mother about 160,000 years agoin East Africa. Due to East-African mega-droughts between 135 and 75thousand years ago, when the water volume of the lake Malawi wasreduced by at least 95% could have caused their migration out of Africa.Which route did they take? Our study of the tribes of Andaman andNicobar Islands using complete mitochondrial DNA sequences and itscomparison with the mitochondrial DNA sequences of the worldpopulations available in the database led to the theory of southern coastalroute of migration through India, against the prevailing view of northernroute of migration via Middle East, Europe, South-East Asia, Australiaand then to India. Our earlier study revealed that Negrito tribes ofAndaman and Nicobar Islands, such as Onge, Jarawa, Great Andamaneseand Sentinelese, are probably the descendants of the first man who movedout of Africa.This raised many questions such as: (i) What is the origin of mainland27

28BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANYtribal and caste populations?, (ii) Are there any population(s) in mainland India,who are close to Andamanese?, (iii) How much affinities the Indian populationshave with Andamanese?, (iv) Did the Indians contribute to the early humanspread?In order to answer the remaining questions and to explore the ancienthistory of India we have harnessed genomic technology.Ancient roots for India’s rich diversityWe analyzed more than 500,000 genetic markers across the genomeof 132 individuals from 25 diverse groups, representing 14 states, all 6language families, traditionally in “upper” and “lower” castes, and tribalgroups. We discovered two ancestral groups (i) Ancestral South Indiansand (ii) Ancestral North Indians and demonstrated that different Indianparent groups have inherited different properties of these two ancestries.For example, different Indian groups have inherited 40% to 80 % of theirancestry from the Ancestral North Indians that is related to westernEurasians and the rest from the Ancestral South Indians who are notrelated to any groups outside India.The finding that nearly all Indian groups descend from mixtures oftwo ancestral populations applies to traditional “tribes” as to “castes”. Itis impossible to distinguish castes from tribes using the data. The geneticsproves that castes grew directly out of tribal-like organizations duringthe formation of Indian society. One exception to this finding that allIndian groups are mixed is the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands.The Negrito tribes of Andamans appear to be related exclusively to theAncestral South Indian lineage and, therefore, lack Ancestral North Indianancestry. The Negrito tribes of Andamans are unique.The present research findings are consistent with the views of oneschool of thoughts that the Aryans and Dravidians are part of the sameculture and we need not speak of them as separate. Present findings,however, contradict the second school of historians such as Max Màllerwho for the first time applied the Aryan name to the Indo-Europeanconcept, identified this racial-linguistic entity as racially white and wasinstrumental in the formation of the racial theory of Indian civilization.Have Eurasians descended from the Ancestral North Indians? Thisis the question we would like to address in our future research activitiesand publications.

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Birbal Sahni