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The family of Indian farmer Vesta Mandloi has passed down a stone ball for generations – and revered it as divine.

This is not uncommon in the area where Mandloi lives. In his village and surrounding settlements, stone balls are revered as a family totem and symbol of the popular Hindu god Shiva, the guardian of the land and livestock. The farmers paint facial features on the stones or let pregnant cattle jump over the stone balls because they think this will produce healthy offspring, writes the ‘Times of India’.

Now, the sacred object of Mandloi’s family – as well as the neighbors’ totems – turned out to be a dinosaur egg, the Bmitirbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP) in Lucknow announced.

The egg comes from a herbivorous Titanosaurus that lived millions of years ago in central India, researcher Mahesh Thakkar explains.

Geological park opens

Thakkar and other scientists met farmer Mandloi and the alleged stone ball as a geological park is set to open in the region in Madhya Pradesh state. This is because the Narmada Valley in Madhya Pradesh served as a breeding ground for dinosaurs millions of years ago.

A large number of dinosaur bones, teeth and eggs have already been found in the fossil-rich area. In January, for example, researchers reported in the journal ‘Plos one’ about the discovery of 92 titanosaur links.

The BSIP director asked residents to participate in the cleanup of the site and explained to them that the fossils found in the area were part of India’s national heritage, the Times of India report said. (sda/dpa)