By K. C. Vikas Kumar MANGALORE, DEC. 19. In a controversial theory, Prof. Arunachalam Kumar of the Department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, has predicted unearthing of fossils from the northern ridges of the Western Ghats and the adjoining regions of the upper Deccan and the Rann of Kutch. The theory, according to Prof. Kumar, is a product of six years of study and is based on the break-up of Gondwanaland, the subsequent continental drift, the realignment of land masses of the world and the associated species distribution along the land masses. In a book titled, Biodiversity of the Western Ghats, edited by biologists, including Mr. S. A. Hussain and Mr. K. A. Achar, Prof. Kumar says: ``Species-specific locales of early primates and pongids, as seen today, lie in equatorial South America, South Central Africa, Madagascar, India and Indonesia.'' The theory, he says, is based on the assumption that ``all early prehensile primates and the later evolved gorillas and chimpanzees of Africa, the gibbons of north India and the orangutans of Sumatra and Borneo are seen localised along a single arc of land that spreads across South America, Africa to South-East Asia and then to upper Australia.'' The presence of these animals, on different continents or land masses separated by oceans, if transposed on the map of Gondwanaland, shows that gene pools that supposedly spawned all these species are restricted to a single crescent of land running south-west to north to south-east on the original land mass. Prof. Kumar is certain that anthropologists will unearth a new addition to the human evolution tree, possibly in the form of bipedal fossils from India. Prof. Uttangi, a senior biologist, backs Prof. Kumar's views as is evident from his letter to the latter. The letter suggests that it is possible to unearth missing links of hominids from the regions adjoining the Western Ghats. This view is based on a study made by him on intestinal parasites found in frogs. In 1948, Prof. Uttangi is said to have discovered the presence of bi-nucleated opalinid protozoa, a seemingly rare species that is predominantly found in Antarctica, in the intestines of frogs and some other species such as the microhylids living close to the Western Ghats in Dharwad region. The sightings confirmed that there were land connections between Gondwanaland and Madagascar, and the then ocean islands. In addition to this is the recent discovery of dinosaur bones and skeletal fragments in the North-east and in the Hyderabad region. The discovery made in the early Fifties suggests that till 70 million years ago, vertebrates from the Jurassic era were roaming on the Indian subcontinent. Prof. Kumar says: Since almost 95 per cent of the human genes are present in the apes, it is probable that the pithecoid gene pool evolved sporadically as mutations from the pongid pool in disjointed locales across Gondwanaland. Supporting this theory is the finding of early preconsul and giant ape fossils that pre-dated hominids in the Siwaliks, indicating that the genetic material required for the mutation (genetic, environment-induced or spontaneous) into better evolved higher bipeds and hominids can be found in India. Prof. Kumar is of the opinion that reports of sightings of Yeti in Bhutan and the giant apes in Vietnam may not be figments of imagination. The Ramapithecus and Sivapethecus or their ape-like cousins may indeed have survived in the inaccessible locales of Asia. Early bipedal human fossils have been uncovered in geographically-disjointed locales across the globe, which proves that their origins could have been from a single area or strip of land that eventually got separated by continental-shelf drifts caused by tectonic plate movements. From primates such as chimpanzees to Mesopithecus, Dryopithecus, Pithecanthropus, Pliopithecus, Ramapithecus, Sivapithecus, and Gigantopithecus, (all proconsuls and giant Protohominid bipeds) into Paranthropous and Australiopithicines (probably the ancestor of humankind), the genetic pool remains static and concentrated along the crescent land mass of early Gondwanaland, he says. я