136-190 Million Years Marine Fossils Indicate Past Marine Life in Mondulkiri

CEOCambodiaNews · Post by **CEOCambodiaNews** » Thu May 21, 2020 6:07 pm

Ammonites from 136-190 Million Years Ago Found in Mondulkiri Province
AKP Phnom Penh, May 20, 2020 --

Marine ammonites, seemingly belonging to the family of snails and squid, have been discovered in the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary in the Koh Nhek district of Mondulkiri province.
The news was shared in a press release by the Ministry of Environment issued yesterday, adding that the presence of marine life indicates that the site was once the sea bed.

The ammonites were found about 5 kilometres from the Srepok river and may have been there for 136-190 million years.
- AKP

John Bingham · Post by **John Bingham** » Thu May 21, 2020 10:51 pm

That's interesting as it is relatively high land. Supposedly much more recently, like 50,000/10,000 years ago (?) the Dangrek escarpment was a coast and the lowlands of Cambodia which built up from the sea since are just sediment that has been brought down from the upper areas of the Mekong and some minor rivers in the Cardamons or the one that flows east from Pailin/ Battambang. Shrinking sea levels at the end of the ice age may have played a part too. Anyway, this is all off the top of my head, if anyone has further information I'd like to check it out.

SternAAlbifrons · Post by **SternAAlbifrons** » Thu May 21, 2020 11:25 pm

Koh Nhek is still only 165 metres above sea level. Higher than most of Cambodia but still well short of the relatively recent Dangrek (and Annamite) coastline that JB mentions above.
So maybe these shells are only a few 10's of thousands of years old - not 100's of millions.
???

Then again, parts of central Australia, eg, are littered with sea shells from the Cretaceous period - 144 to 65 million years ago - at elevations much higher than this.

I always wanted to spend a few weeks on a small boat with a geologist - so i could really pick his brains to pieces. Not easy to get a good, detailed geological understanding of Cambodia.