LAHORE, Jan 5: A Punjab University zoology department research team claimed to have discovered seven million years old fossils of skull of pigs, mandible of elephant having two molars, isolated upper and lower molars of horses and crocodiles from Lawa in Chakwal district.

The fossils have been placed in the Fossil Display Centre of the zoology department.

The team, headed by Dr Muhammad Akhtar, comprised MSc final year students Alamdar Khan, Shahzad Yousaf, Muhammad Ismail, Rizwan Rehman, Mehdi Zaheer, Muhammad Bilal, Muhammad Salim, Safeer Shah, Attaullah, and field assistant Miskeen Ali.

Talking to Dawn on Friday, Dr Akhtar said these fossils were discovered from sedimentary rocks from Law, 40 kilometres from Talagang towards Mianwali during their visit between Dec 25 and 28 last.

He said the age of the fossils had been determined by the radio-metric technique.

He said all the fossils, discovered from one sedimentary rock, were very useful for classification of animals.

He claimed that isolated upper and lower molars of horses show that these were of extinct three-toe horses called Hipprion.

He said the fossils of crocodiles show that rivers used to flow in the region where mountains exist now.

Dr Akhtar said the department had earlier discovered 13 million years old fossils of giraffe from Amir Khatoon Dhok area. Fossils of sea animals like sea-urchin, brachiods have also been discovered from Kattas near Choa Saidan Shah.

He said these fossils indicated that oil could be discovered from this area.