In India, Cretaceous elasmobranchs are known from the uppermost Cretaceous Deccan intertrappean sedimentary sequences of peninsular India and the lower Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Karai Formation of the Cauvery basin, South India. The intertrappean elasmobranchs are represented mainly by rays and skates, whereas the Karai fauna is known by hexanchiform, squaliform, and lamniform sharks. The latter assemblage is dominated by cool temperate water forms in addition to some cosmopolitan forms. Here new shark teeth recovered from the upper part of the marine Cretaceous Bagh Group, in the lower Narmada valley, Western India are described. This is the first detailed description of sharks from the Bagh Group and the first record of sharks from the youngest horizons (Coniacian to Late Maastrichtian) of this marine sedimentary sequence. The fauna, recovered from an oyster shell‐rich green sandstone at the top of the youngest geological unit (the Coralline Limestone) of the Bagh Group, is assigned to Ptychodus sp., Scapanorhynchus sp. aff. S. raphiodon (Agassiz, 1844), Cretodus sp. aff. C. crassidens (Dixon, 1850), Cretalamna sp., Squalicorax sp. aff. S. falcatus Agassiz, 1843, and Elasmobranchii indet. This assemblage, previously widely documented from the Cretaceous deposits of North and South Americas, Europe, North and West Africa, Far East and Near East, demonstrates that there is a clear change in elasmobranch faunal composition of India from cool temperate water forms in the early Late Cretaceous to essentially cosmopolitan forms in the Late Cretaceous.
A new fossiliferous intertrappean section is found 92 km southwest of the extensively studied intertrappean beds of Mohgaonkalan and Jhilmili in Chhindwara District, Central India. Application of the bulk screen‐washing method led to the recovery of a rich microvertebrate fauna represented by fish, amphibians, crocodiles, snakes and dinosaurs. In this paper, the ichthyofauna recovered from the new intertrappean section consisting of Igdabatis indicus Prasad and Cappetta, 1993, Lepisosteus indicus Woodward, 1908, Osteoglossidae gen. et sp. indet., Pycnodontidae gen. et sp. indet. and Siluriformes indet. is described. The ichthyofauna dominantly represented by the teeth of Igdabatis indicus is suggestive of a nearshore, deltaic or estuarine palaeoenvironment and Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age for the intertrappean beds. The remarkable similarity of the new intertrappean fauna to that of Asifabad and the infratrappean beds of Marepalli also is suggestive of coastal‐plain conditions all along the Godavari lineament in the Late Cretaceous. Although the presence of planktonic foraminifera in the intertrappean beds of Jhilmili in the Mandla Lobe of Deccan volcanic province has been inferred in terms of a short term marine incursion from the west coast along the Narmada lineament in the Early Palaeocene, currently there is no definitive evidence for the prevalence of marine or coastal‐plain conditions along the Narmada lineament at least in the latest Cretaceous.
Recent field prospecting in the Cretaceous sequences of the lower Narmada valley has led to the discovery of three isolated archosaur teeth from the upper part of marine Cretaceous rocks of the Bagh Group. The specimens were recovered by surface prospecting from an oyster-bearing green sandstone bed occurring at the top of the Coralline Limestone (Coniacian) from a site near Phutibawri village, Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh, India. Of the three teeth recovered from this horizon, two are identified with abelisaurid dinosaurs and the third one with an indeterminate crocodile. The abelisaurid teeth conform to the premaxillary and maxillary tooth morphology of Majungasaurus and Indosuchus. Earlier reports of abelisaurid dinosaurs from India are from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Lameta Group of Jabalpur, Pisdura (Central India) and Balasinor (Western India) and Upper Cretaceous (Late Maastrichtian) Kallamedu Formation (South India). As no associated age diagnostic fossils are found, the specimens described here are considered to represent pre-Late to Late Maastrichtian age based on the known ages of the underlying and overlying formations. The new finds, therefore, document stratigraphically the oldest occurrence of abelisaurid dinosaurs known from the Indian subcontinent.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.