Marine Marvels: Discovering the Astonishing Aquatic World of Gomal Valley

Amazing presence of millions of years old marine life in the Drazanda area near Dera Ismail Khan

If you go from Dera Ismail Khan to Zhob area of ​​Balochistan, then at a distance of 60 km, after Chitral plain area Drabin, there is a semi-tribal area of ​​Drazanda.

 In this area, in the mountain range of Mount Solomon, the locals have found fossils of marine life that to be rocks, but in fact they are creatures that have turned to rock over time.

More than 50 species of marine life have been discovered in this arid mountainous region bordering Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Fossils are living things that turn to rock over time and retain much of their structure.

There are also areas near Drazanda where drinking water is scarce today but according to experts, in the past there was an ocean in this area which has gone hundreds of kilometers away with the passage of time. Now most of the area is barren and barren.  There is grass. Remains of marine life discovered in the rugged mountains of Dera Ismail Khan. Climate and geography are constantly changing on the planet. The changes that take place on a daily basis are so minor that they cannot be observed, but over thousands, millions of years, they become so noticeable that they become contradictory.

And this can be gauged from the fact that many of the areas that are deserted and arid today are oceans millions of years ago. Surprisingly, when we went to this mountainous area, we saw small rocks buried in the mud.

If the soil is swept away from them, oysters and snails can be seen inside them and all this is found in large numbers there. Some of the fossils discovered here are in extremely safe condition.

While teaching biology to school children, Atlas Khan Sherani, a teacher at a government high school in Drazanda, had a hard time understanding the concept of fossil. Atlas Khan said that he knew that these fossils were found in large numbers in the local mountains, so he went to the school the next day looking for different types of fossils from the nearby mountains and explained to the children what fossils were. According to Atlas Khan, millions of years ago there was an ocean in this area which has retreated due to climate change and this marine life has remained here.

According to experts, millions of years ago, the area up to Dera Ismail Khan was the sea. They point out that when a living thing is buried in the ground in a place where there is intense pressure but no oxygen, and 10,000 years pass on it, these living things are preserved in the form of rocks. According to Atlas Khan, he has so far provided these fossils to about 110 educational and research institutions so that they can be researched and help children understand fossils. Atlas Khan has so far found 53 species of animals in the area, including snails or snails, crabs, fish and fish eggs. He said that according to the information he has obtained from various sources, these fossils belong to the Cretaceous period which started 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago. And they are so clear that it is clear who they are.  They have found skulls, spinal cords and other important remains of some large animals.

The scientific significance of the Gomal Valley

In this regard, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Archaeological Department says that the Gomal Valley, which consists of Dera Ismail Khan and its adjoining areas, is of great historical importance. In this area, along with the archeological sites of the Indus Valley Civilization,  Historical fossils have been found, but so far no formal research has been done.  A plan is now under consideration to conduct research on a regular scientific basis here, as fossils as well as traces of 2 million years ago can be found here.

Since Gomal Valley is not much higher than sea level, they are hopeful that traces of the time when humans lived in caves can be found here.

Since Peshawar and the Swat Valley are quite high above sea level, no such ancient artifacts have been found here, but traces of human evolution and very ancient fossils can be found in Gomal Valley.  Millions of years ago these oceans, mountains and rivers were not like that and it is true that there was an ocean in this area first and the mountains have come to the fore since then because the fossils discovered are marine life and everything has changed in millions of year.