Department Of Geology
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Item Chondrichthyan and osteichthyan fauna from the middle Miocene deposits of Palasava, Kutch, India: implication for paleoenvironment and paleobiogeography; [Faune de chondrichtyens et d�ost�ichtyens provenant des d�p�ts du Mioc�ne moyen de Palasava, Kutch, Inde: implication pour le pal�oenvironnement et la pal�obiog�ographie](Academie des sciences, 2022-12-13T00:00:00) Singh, Nongmaithem Amardas; Choudhary, Deepak; Singh, Y. Priyananda; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Patnaik, Rajeev; Tiwari, R.P.; Sharma, K. MilankumarThe Neogene of Kutch, India is well known for its rich marine and terrestrial vertebrate assemblages. However, the data of piscean fauna from the middle Miocene of India is very scarce. We report here additional chondrichthyan and osteichthyan remains from the middle Miocene deposit of Chhasra Formation, Palasava site, Kutch, Gujarat, India. The elasmobranchs include Carcharhinus Blainville, 1816 (C. brevipinna (M�ller & Henle, 1839), C. falciformis (M�ller & Henle, 1839), C. cf. leucas, C. aff. perezi, Carcharhinus sp.), Negaprion Whitley, 1940 (Negaprion sp.), Aetobatus Blainville, 1816 (Aetobatus sp.), Myliobatis Cuvier, 1816 (Myliobatis sp.), Dasyatis Rafinesque, 1810 (D. probsti Cappetta, 1970, D. rugosa Probst, 1877), Himantura M�ller & Henle, 1837 (H. menoni Sahni & Mehrotra, 1981), Pastinachus R�ppell, 1829 (Pastinachus sp.), and Taeniurops Garman, 1913 (Taeniurops sp.). The teleosts of Palasava are represented by four families including Bagridae Bleeker, 1858, Channidae Fowler, 1934, Characidae Latreille, 1925 and Cyprinidae Cuvier, 1817. S�rensen-Dice coefficient data of Palasava elasmobranchs show a good similarity index with their counterparts in the Mediterranean Sea suggesting the existence of short-lived reopening of the marine pathway. However, a much higher faunal affinity with those of Eastern Pacific indicates a gradual shift in migration path through the Pacific Ocean to Indo-Pacific region after the permanent landbridge was formed. The vertebrate fauna from the Palasava suggests a coastal, marginal marine, near-shore littoral to neritic environment of deposition with the influence of freshwater riverine system. The integration of the floras and faunas from Palasava locality indicates the presence of warm, humid/ wet, tropical to sub-tropical environmental conditions during the middle Miocene. � 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.Item The first report of cf. Zygolophodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea, Mammutidae) from the Upper Miocene of Kutch, India(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2023-04-25T00:00:00) Choudhary, Deepak; Jukar, Advait M.; Patnaik, Rajeev; Singh, Nongmaithem Amardas; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Milankumar Sharma, K.[No abstract available]Item First report on late Miocene (Tortonian: ~ 11�10�Ma) charophyte gyrogonites from Tapar, Kachchh District, Gujarat State, western India(Springer Nature, 2022-09-05T00:00:00) Singh, Nongmaithem Amardas; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Sharma, K. Milankumar; Patnaik, Rajeev; Tiwari, R.P.; Sehgal, Ramesh Kumar; Kumar, Vinay; Wazir, Wasim Abass; Singh, Y. Priyananda; Choudhary, DeepakThis paper describes the first record of charophyte gyrogonites from the late Miocene (Tortonian; ~ 11�10�Ma) Tapar locality of Kachchh, Gujarat State, western India. The recovered charophyte assemblage is constituted by Chara globularis var. aspera, C. globularis var. globularis, Lychnothamnus cf. sahnii, Lychnothamnus sp. and Nitellopsis sp. In addition, the present article discusses the palaeoenvironment based on the recorded charophyte gyrogonites (this study) and previously known faunal data (mainly vertebrates) from the Tapar locality, Kutch Basin, western India. Further, considering the significant extension of the biostratigraphic range [especially the First Appearance Datum (FAD)] of fauna from the Kutch Basin (in particular from the Tapar locality), we herein make an attempt to compare biostratigraphically the faunal assemblages from Kutch with those from the Siwalik Group, north India. � 2022, Indian National Science Academy.Item Listriodon dukkar sp. nov. (Suidae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the late Miocene of Pasuda (Gujarat, India): the decline and extinction of the Listriodontinae(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022-03-17T00:00:00) van der Made, Jan; Choudhary, Deepak; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Sharma, K. Milankumar; Singh, Nongmaithem Amardas; Patnaik, RajeevThe Listriodontinae were a common and widespread group of Suidae (pigs) that lived in an area extending from Portugal to China and to southern Africa. Here, we describe the new species Listriodon dukkar from Pasuda (Gujarat, India). It shares features with Li. pentapotamiae, evolved from it, and is the last representative of this lineage. The Listriodontinae flourished for about 10 million years, reached their maximum diversity and geographic extension during the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (about 17�13.6�Ma), and their last records are close in age and date to�~ 9.8�Ma in the Indian Subcontinent, 9.78�Ma in Europe, and ~ 10�Ma in Africa. We review the environments in which the last listriodont lineages lived and went extinct. Their extinctions occurred against a background of increasing seasonality, vegetation change, a rise in bovid diversity and abundance, and local events, such as the European Vallesian Crisis and a dramatic drop in tragulid abundance in the Siwaliks. However, changes in the atmospheric pCO2 may have contributed to their decline and extinction in all their geographic distribution. Decreasing pCO2 is expected to have decreased sugar content and increased protein content of leaves and fruit. Hindgut fermenting Suoidea have higher protein requirements, while foregut fermenting Suoidea are more efficient in digesting sugars. Listriodontinae were probably foregut fermenters and were less well adapted in a low pCO2 world. � 2022, The Author(s).Item The Miocene fossil lizards from Kutch (Gujarat), India: A rare window to the past diversity of this subcontinent(Cambridge University Press, 2021-09-06T00:00:00) ?er?ansk�, Andrej; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Patnaik, Rajeev; Sharma, K. Milankumar; Tiwari, Raghavendra Prasad; Sehgal, Ramesh Kumar; Singh, Nongmaithem Amardas; Choudhary, DeepakThe Miocene beds of Kutch in India are well known for their mammalian assemblages, including the extinct ape Sivapithecus, but far less is known about the fossil squamates from this area. Although India with its over 800 reptile species is recognized as one of the global biodiversity hotspots, knowledge of past diversity and paleobiogeography of squamates on this subcontinent is very limited. We here report on new lizard finds, which have been recovered from two stratigraphic levels: the older Palasava locality (dated to the middle Miocene, ca. 14 Ma) and the younger Tapar site (late Miocene, ca. 11-10 Ma). Although fragmentarily preserved, the material described here sheds important light on the composition and paleobiogeography of squamates during the Miocene in South Asia. The older Palasava locality contains cf. Uromastyx s.l. and Varanus sp., the latter representing the oldest record of this taxon in the region of India south of the Himalayas and its occurrence here suggests a mean annual temperature not less than 15�C. The material from the younger Tapar locality consists of an unidentified acrodontan lizard, here questionably placed in agamids, and a skink. The latter shows a resemblance to mabuyines, however, the fragmentary nature of the material does not allow a precise allocation without doubts. The cosmopolitan mabuyines have been suggested to have their origin in Asia, so the potential presence of mabuyines in the Tapar locality might represent the first, but putative, Asian evidence of the occurrence of this group in the Miocene. Copyright � The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Paleontological Society.Item New rodents shed light on the age and ecology of late Miocene ape locality of Tapar (Gujarat, India)(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2022-08-05T00:00:00) Patnaik, Rajeev; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Sharma, K. Milankumar; Singh, Nongmaithem Amardas; Choudhary, Deepak; Singh, Y. Priyananda; Kumar, Rohit; Wazir, Wasim Abass; Sahni, AshokThe Miocene ape (Sivapithecus) locality of Tapar in Kutch (Gujarat, India) has yielded a diverse rodent assemblage that includes: a new murine Progonomys prasadi sp. nov., a new gerbilline Myocricetodon gujaratensis sp. nov., a new rhizomyne Kanisamys kutchensis sp. nov. and a new sciurine Tamias gilaharee sp. nov., beside additional remains of Progonomys morganae, Dakkamys asiaticus, Prokanisamys sp., Sayimys sivalensis and Democricetodon fejfari. Morphometric and PAUP based phylogenetic analyses place Progonomys prasadi sp. nov. within the Progonomys lineage. The cladogram obtained for the Siwalik murines suggest that Progonomys was ancestral to all the modern and one extinct murine genera recovered from the Siwaliks. The advanced features of Myocricetodon gujaratensis sp. nov. indicate that it was an immigrant to the subcontinent in the late Miocene. The cladistic analysis performed on Kanisamys kutchensis sp. nov. shows that it shared several advanced characters with contemporaneous Kanisamys nagrii and Kanisamys sivalensis. Based on the biostratigraphical ranges of Siwalik rodents and the co-occurrence of advanced forms of new and already reported murines, a new gerbilline and a new sciurine, we propose an age of ?10 Ma to the primate-bearing Tapar locality. Already reported stable isotope data on murines, and ecological preferences of modern counterparts of the fossil rodents and associated sharks and rays from Tapar locality, indicate that the Miocene ape Sivapithecus may have lived in a subtropical monsoonal forest close to the coast, very different from the present day arid conditions. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:12CE1B44-22A0-450F-9588-6C7F25242771. � The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London 2022. All rights reserved.Item A new window to the fossil herpetofauna of India: amphibians and snakes from the Miocene localities of Kutch (Gujarat)(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021-11-25T00:00:00) Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Patnaik, Rajeev; ?er?ansk�, Andrej; Sharma, K Milankumar; Singh, Nongmaithem Amardas; Choudhary, Deepak; Sehgal, Ramesh KumarThe Miocene beds of Kutch in India are well known for their mammalian assemblages including an extinct ape Sivapithecus. We here report new amphibian and snake fossils, which have been recovered from two stratigraphic levels: the older Palasava locality which is dated to the middle Miocene (~ 14�Ma), whereas the sediments of younger sites at Tappar and Pasuda representing the late Miocene (~ 11�10�Ma). The amphibian material consists only of Rana sp., Ranidae indet. and Anura indet. The snake material is much more diverse and can be allocated to several taxa: Python sp., Acrochordus dehmi, Acrochordus sp., Ahaetuliinae indet. and Alethinophidia indet. Among all these finds, the fossils of Rana sp., Ahaetuliinae indet. and Python sp. described here form the first evidence of these taxa from the Neogene of India. The ectothermic faunas are good indicators of palaeoenvironmental conditions. The ectothermic vertebrate assemblages of these Indian localities indicate a very warm, humid/wet, tropical to sub-tropical environmental conditions during the middle and late Miocene. � 2021, Senckenberg Gesellschaft f�r Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.Item Sharks and rays (chondrichthyes, elasmobranchii) from the miocene sediments of Kutch, Gujarat, India: paleoenvironmental and paleobiogeographic implications(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2021-03-05T00:00:00) Sharma, K Milankumar; Singh, N Amardas; Patnaik, Rajeev; Tiwari, R.P.; Singh, Ningthoujam Premjit; Singh, Y Priyananda; Choudhary, Deepak; Lalotra, Sushil KumarWe report here a diverse assemblage of sharks and batoids representing the genera Carcharhinus, Rhizoprionodon, Galeocerdo, Sphyrna, Myliobatis, Aetobatus, Dasyatis, Pastinachus, Himantura and Pristis from Tapar and Jangadia the two late and early Miocene sites, respectively, of Kutch (Gujarat, India). The shark Rhizoprionodon and batoids, Dasyatis rugosa, D. cf. probsti, Dasyatis sp., Pastinachus and Himantura are being reported for the first time from the Miocene of western coast of India. The presence of Carcharhinus sp., Rhizoprionodon sp., Lamna sp., Negaprion sp., Sphyrna lewini, Myliobatis sp., Aetobatus sp. in the early Miocene Khari Nadi Formation exposed at Jangadia suggest existence of lagoonal, near shore to outer shelf environment. The rich batoid assemblage at the Late Miocene hominoid (Sivapithecus) bearing site of Tapar indicates the presence of a fresh to brackish water environmental condition. The faunal similarity of Miocene chondrichthyan of Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea regions has been assessed using the beta diversity (S�rensen�Dice coefficient) data. The early Miocene elasmobranchs from Kutch shows close affinities with those from Mediterranean Sea. Similarly, in the Indian Ocean region Miocene fauna of Kutch shows close similarity with those of Baripada Beds, Orissa, Bhuban Formation of Mizoram, Gogha Coast, Piram Island and Madagascar. � 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.