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The youngest, outermost ranks of the Himalaya — built from the mountains' own debris, and packed with fossils.
The Siwaliks are the outermost and youngest foothills of the Himalaya. They are made largely of sand, silt and gravel — the eroded debris shed off the rising mountains over the last ten million years or so, dumped by rivers onto the plains and then folded up as the Himalayan front kept advancing.
Because these sediments were laid down across river floodplains teeming with life, the Siwaliks are world-famous for their fossil mammals, preserving a remarkable record of the animals that roamed the region through the Neogene and into the Ice Ages.
Sources
- Geological Survey of India