The scientists of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) have found that the Indian ‘scutigeromorphs’ had originated in the supercontinent ‘Gondwana’ and continued to evolve within Peninsular India.
- These are fleet-footed centipedes.
- The current Australian biodiversity of ‘Scutigeromorpha’ is also likely to have originated when the Indian ancestor dispersed from India within the last 100 million years.
- The scientists think that the “scutigeromorphs” took ‘a passage through India’ from Gondwana all the way to Australia.
- The landmass of Peninsular India is extremely old and was part of ‘Gondwana’.
- Gondwana was an ancient supercontinent that broke up about 180 million years ago. The continent eventually split into landmasses we recognize today: Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula.