A new window to the fossil herpetofauna of India: amphibians and snakes from the Miocene localities of Kutch (Gujarat)

Abstract

The 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.