National Park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
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India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, in which plant
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s belonging to 31 genera of 18 families have been identified.
The site was founded during the 1970s by Dr. Dharmendra Prasad, a statistical officer of the Mandla district and honorary secretary of the district archaeology unit. It was declared a National Park in 1983. Numerous plant, leaf, fruit, seed, and shell fossils can be found in this park, some of which date as far back as 65 million years, the most prominent of which are the palm fossils.
Notable fossils
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eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
fossil found at Ghughua is the oldest fossil of its type ever discovered and this find supports its origins from Gondwana. Additional notable discoveries include a dinosaur egg fossil.
Transportation
Ghughua Fossil Park is located near National Highway 11. It is situated 14 km from Shahpura and 76 km from
Jabalpur
Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...