When India Was Adrift at Sea

When India Was Adrift at Sea Around 90 million years ago, India broke its last link with the rest of Gondwana and drifted thousands of kilometres north as an island continent, carrying its own dinosaurs, snakes and frogs. This is the story of that voyage, from a snake in a dinosaur nest and the Deccan lava floods to the first whales and the crash into Asia. Main sources: Wilson et al. 2010, PLoS Biology (Sanajeh, the snake in the nest) Kumar et al. 2007, Nature; Pusok & Stegman 2020, Science Advances; Jagoutz et al. 2015, Nature Geoscience (India's drift speed) Schoene et al. 2019; Sprain et al. 2019, Science; Renne et al. 2013, Science (dating the Deccan Traps) Biju & Bossuyt 2003, Nature (the purple frog) Rose et al. 2014, Nature Communications; Datta & Bajpai 2024 (Vastan mammals, Vasuki) Thewissen et al. 2007, Nature (Indohyus and the origin of whales); van Hinsbergen et al. 2012, PNAS Images: fossil and specimen photos and some footage from Wikimedia Commons (authors and licences below); stock footage from Pixabay and Coverr; silhouettes from PhyloPic; maps, globe and graphics made for this video. Some prehistoric reconstructions are AI-generated (Google Vids) and are illustrations, not photographs. Music: Suno. Chapters: 0:00 The Snake in the Nest 4:04 Casting Off 8:25 Reading the Wake 12:40 Island or Continent? 16:32 The Fastest Plate 20:43 The Giants Aboard 24:42 A Strange Crew 29:27 Into the Fire 32:47 Clocks in the Lava 36:22 Between the Flows 39:53 The Ticket Stub 44:00 Landfall in the Mist 48:16 The Serpent of the Swamps 51:02 Walking into the Sea 55:56 The Ark Runs Aground Image credits (Wikimedia Commons): CC BY 2.0: James St. John; Walter from Pinellas Park, Florida; Lunching Lemurs (file author); O.V.E.R.V.I.E.W.; Bert Kaufmann CC BY 2.5: Jeffrey A. Wilson, Dhananjay M. Mohabey, Shanan E. Peters, Jason J. Head; Tyler Keillor, Ximena Erickson, Bonnie Miljour CC BY 3.0: volcan01010blog; Skies of Slovenia; Mike Seyfang; G. Edward Johnson; Kaalomai Kirdani; Natasha Redina; Kiliii Yuyan; Samuel Nowack; Fair Projects; Adam Fish; Cj.samson; Conty; CSIRO; FunkMonk; Vaikoovery; Michael Gäbler; Nordelch CC BY 4.0: Shiv's fotografia; Brandon Seah; Janek Lass; Отряжий Павло, Світозар Давиденко; Dfromhimalayas; Chris De Hauwere; Vyacheslav Argenberg; T. R. Shankar Raman; Lies Van Rompaey; Claude Kolwelter; Kingshuk Mondal; SeismicShrimp CC BY-SA 2.0: Christoph Strässler; Ken Lund; Anthony O'Neil CC BY-SA 3.0: Joseolgon; Smiley.toerist; David Monniaux; Bramfab; KartikMistry; Karthickbala; Markus Koljonen; Tiia Monto; Ghedoghedo; Uwe Gille; Uajith CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO: Envisat satellite (ESA) CC BY-SA 4.0: Danieljksn; Giles Laurent; Capricorn4049; Paul Danese; Joy Agyepong; Bigmacthealmanac; Matti Ernuson; Deni Ingilizovski; Liquid Art; Vijayanrajapuram; Lümmel 1; Nesnad; Vinayaraj; Etemenanki3; Mikocheung; Greeshma Pathri Suresh; BleachedRice; Charles J. Sharp; Aprisonsan; Vila et al.; Ansh Saxena; Swapnil.Karambelkar; WehaveaTrex; Jonathan Chen; Petr Menshikov; Adivaitha; Ravi Kumar Vundavalli; Evan Pickett; Unnikrishnan Nair P.K.; JensKunstfreund; Ghedoghedo; Rextron; Tahir Masood Qureshi; Akrasia25; Ghedo; Ethmostigmus; Dhruva Punde; Fama Clamosa Public domain / CC0 images and footage from NASA, BLM and others are not listed. #prehistoric #paleontology #deeptime