A team of Indian and French researchers have concluded that the hot arid desert of Kutch was once a humid sub-tropical forest with a variety of birds, freshwater fish and possibly giraffes and rhinos.
Their conclusions are based on the discovery of a tranche of vertebrate fossils from nearly 14 million years ago in a geological period known as the Miocene.
The fossils were found at a place called Palasava.
The findings point to clues on how mammals dispersed between Africa and the Indian subcontinent nearly 300 million years ago.