Akal Wood Fossil Park
Akal Wood Fossil Park is a National Geological Monument of India located in Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan. It is also a Biodiversity Heritage Site.
| Akal Wood Fossil Park | |
|---|---|
| Type | Fossil park |
| Location | Akal, Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan, India |
| Nearest city | Jaisalmer |
| Coordinates | 26°49′30″N 71°02′24″E |
| Area | 21 hectares (52 acres) |
| Elevation | 247 m above mean sea level |
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. The terrain is barren and rocky.
The park lies in Jaisalmer's fossil belt, a region noted to have the potential for geological parks. Fossils and footprints of pterosaurs have been found in the nearby Thaiyat area.
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. There are a total of 25 petrified tree trunks. The fossils date back 180 million years.
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.