Name: Baluchitherium
Age: 34 million years
Nationality: Pakistani
Claim to fame: Largest land mammal

A JOINT French-Pakistan team of paleontologists has recovered and reconstructed ninety per cent of Baluchitherium, the largest mammal ever to roam the surface of Planet Earth.

Led by Professor Dr Jean Luc Welcomme of the Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier, France, the fossil remains of the animal have been discovered in the Bugti Hills of Balochistan.

The Baluchitherium existed between 34 to 24 million years back and started to migrate to the subcontinent during the end of the Oligocence Period and to other broader areas to the north as indicated by the discovery of much smaller species of Baluchitherium in South Mongolia. The size of the specie began to diminish over a period of two to three million years, and ultimately disappeared at the end of the Oligocence Age.

The fossilized remains of the animal were first discovered in 1906, by British paleontologist Forster Cooper. However, not much could be made of his discovery as the singular fragile fossil bone broke into pieces before reaching the British Museum. Still, it was named Baluchitherium to start with, so that it could be identified with its place of discovery.

The Baluchitherium evolved after the large reptiles (dinosaurs) disappeared. Its measurements came to 17 feet, nine inches to the top of the shoulder hump, 27 feet to the crown of the raised head, and 35 to 37 feet in overall length. It was also estimated that it must have weighed 16 to 20 tons. It survived for ten million years.

The complete skeleton of this giant mammal is seven meters in height, nine meters in length and is a male adult. Its principle diet was tree leaves and it consumed between one and two tons of food in a day. The discovery of the animal also speaks of the times when the area in Dera Bugti had natural greenery, and a tropical climate. It was so because any shade-loving and grass-eating animal could not have survived without lots of water, plenty of fodder and shade.

Prof Dr Welcomme, with over twenty years of experience in the science of studying fossils and also the movement of the animals in Europe and Central Asia, has been visiting the area of Dera Bugti since 1995. In his determination to find the fossils, the scientist sieved the sand with his own hands, collecting the fossilized bones and then giving them a proper shape. He plans to make two model skeletons of the Baluchitherium in the original size. One will be placed in the Pakistan Natural History Museum, Islamabad, while the other will be in front of the Institute of Paleontology in France.

Dr Welcomme and his team of seven — four Frenchmen and three Pakistanis — will be visiting the Dera Bugti area again this year in order to excavate smaller, missing bones like ribs, joints in the fore and hind legs and other minor fossils to complete the skeleton.