This 12-Year-Old from Chennai is India’s Youngest Paleontologist
Her home looks like an exclusive gallery of fossils, her interests include tracing the species that are long gone from the planet, and her collection of fossil specimens have gone above 70! Meet Aswatha Biju, a 12-year-old girl from Chennai who wears the crown of India’s youngest paleontologist. Yes, we know, even Ross Gellar would be impressed with her!
Her love for fossils erupted for the first time when she was 4-5 years old. On a fine morning, while reading an encyclopedia, Biju learned about an ammonite, and asked her mother to give that ‘shell.’ Her mother, K T Vijayrani, told her that it was a fossil. However, being a good mother, she took her to the Egmore Museum and formally introduced her to her first fossil specimen.
“Right from the time she was two or three years old, she was fascinated with shells and would often collect these,” she told a source. “She had collected many, which she recognized purely based on self-research. Unlike the museum specimens, these weren’t millions of years old. Perhaps, 100 or 200 years she explains further.
That was the beginning of Biju’s love affair with the fossils.
Rest, as they say, is history. But this was only the beginning of her career. One of the highlights of her small (yet) but significant journey was the day when she called the HoD of Marine Sciences of Bharathidasan University in Trichy. He couldn’t believe that Biju was only studying in Vth standard, because of her unbelievable knowledge of fossils. He immediately invited her to meet him and share her observations and collections with her.
The very next day, Biju and her mother traveled for 7 hours to reach the University, but unfortunately, the HoD was not there. However, it was a wonderful stroke of love since they met Dr Ramkumar from Periyar University, who was highly impressed and astonished at her knowledge and passion for fossils.
He spent a good time with her and guided her about having a career in paleontology. He also called her ‘prodigy’ for the first time. Before leaving, he gave Biju, a route map to a paleontology site called Ariyalur. He told her that she would find many fossils there that are million years old.
When she reached Ariyalur, identified all the collected fossils correctly, leaving her mother and father stunned.
“She managed to collect roughly about 26 specimens and identified them all correctly. Now, she has 79 specimens,” her mother says.
With 79 fossils, Aswatha has officially become the youngest paleontologist in the country. With her research and knowledge, Aswatha realized that people in India do not know much about fossils. So, she decided to sensitize people about the same. She connected with the head mistress of a local school and conducted her first session of fossils with the students.
This extraordinary teenager also conducts seminars about the same all across the nation. One of such seminars was also conducted at the Zoological Survey of India, recently. Talk about the talent, interest and knowledge she possesses. It’s simply mind-blowing.
Aswatha has made this her mission—make people aware of the importance of fossils, and we wish nothing but glory to this child prodigy.
