Gondwana Vertebrate Faunas of India: Their Diversity and Intercontinental Relationships

Ray, Saswati Bandyopadhyay and Sanghamitra

doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2020/020028

Cited by 27 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 100 publications

(187 reference statements)

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“…The excavated spiral and non-spiral coprolites produced by fishes and piscivorous animals yielded gymnosperm pollen, apiculate trilete spores produced by pteridophytes and sparse fungal and algal spores together with an admixture of wood shreds, amorphous vegetable matter and fungal remains (Vijaya, Prasad & Singh, 2009). Hence there is an indirect evidence of vegetation from coprolites as well as from the presence of herbivores such as the rhynchosaurs or dicynodonts (Nath & Yadagiri, 2007;Mukherjee & Ray, 2014;Bandyopadhyay & Ray, 2020). Moreover, according to the latest work by Dasgupta, Ghosh & Gierlowski-Kordesch (2017) the climate was warm with seasonal rainfall, which lead to the production of the large amount of mud aggregates and vertic soils and a semi-humid or semi-arid setting has been proposed with prominent seasonality for the Late Triassic Maleri Formation.…”

Section: Temnospondyli and Metoposauridaementioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

Teschner

Chakravorti

Sengupta

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Metoposaurids are representatives of the extinct amphibian clade Temnospondyli, found on almost every continent exclusively in the Late Triassic deposits. Osteohistologically, it is one of the best-known temnospondyl groups, analyzed with a wide spectrum of methods, such as morphology, morphometry, bone histology or computed modelling. The least known member of Metoposauridae is Panthasaurus maleriensis from the Pranhita-Godavari basin in Central India, being geographically the most southern record of this family. For the first time the bone histology of this taxon was studied with a focus on the intraspecific variability of the histological framework and the relationship between the observed growth pattern and climatic and/or environmental conditions. The studied material includes thin-sections of five long bones, a rib, an ilium and an intercentrum belonging most likely to eight individuals ranging from different ontogenetic stages. All bones have a large medullary region with progressively increasing remodeling, surrounded by a lamellar-zonal tissue type. The primary cortex consists of parallel-fibered matrix showing various degrees of organization, less organized collagen fibers in the zones and higher organized in the annuli. Growth marks occur in the form of alternating zones and annuli in every bone except the ilium and the intercentrum. The vascularity becomes less dense towards the outermost cortex in all sampled limb bones. Towards the outermost cortex the zone thickness is decreasing, in contrast to the avascular annuli, that become thicker or are of the same thickness. The growth pattern of P. maleriensis is uniform and represents changes in ontogenetic development. Multiple resting lines are prominent in the outer annuli of the limb bones and the rib and they presumably indicate climatic and environmental influence on the growth pattern. Therefore, a prolonged phase of slowed-down growth occurred during the unfavorable phase, but a complete cessation of growth indicated by Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs) is not recorded in the studied samples. Based on the histological framework we conclude that the climate had an impact on the growth pattern. As we do not see any LAGs in the Indian metoposaurid, we assume that the local climate was relatively mild in India during the Late Triassic. A similar prolonged phase of slowed down growth without the occurrence of LAGs was observed in Metoposaurus krasiejowensis from the Late Triassic of Krasiejów (Poland). This is in contrast to Moroccan metoposaurid Dutuitosaurus ouazzoui from the Late Triassic of Argana Basin, where LAGs are regularly deposited throughout ontogeny indicating most likely harsher climatic conditions.

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Section: Temnospondyli and Metoposauridaementioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

Teschner

Chakravorti

Sengupta

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…The Indian cynodonts are mostly represented by partial crania and isolated teeth recovered from different Triassic horizons of several Gondwana basins (Bandyopadhyay, 1999). The Lower Triassic Panchet Formation of India is similar to the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of South Africa in terms of synapsid composition (Bandyopadhyay and Ray, 2020), and has yielded a partial mandible of Panchetocynodon damodarensis Das and Gupta, 2012 and an undescribed skull of Thrinaxodon bengalensis Satsangi, 1987. Thrinaxodon , the dominant non-mammalian cynodont from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone of South Africa, is also known from the Lower Fremouw Formation of Antarctica, suggesting their widespread dispersal across Gondwana (Colbert and Kitching, 1977).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Postcanines of these cynodonts are not differentiated into premolars and molars, as seen in mammaliaforms (Kermack and Kermack, 1984; Crompton and Luo, 1993). In India, the record of cynodonts is totally lacking in the late Permian, and very poor in the Triassic (Bandyopadhyay and Ray, 2020). This gap in cynodont record is conspicuous in comparison to the high diversity and abundance of Triassic cynodonts elsewhere (Abdala, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1.1, 1.2). These included Thrinaxodon bengalensis Satsangi, 1987 (Bandyopadhyay, 2011) and Panchetocynodon damodarensis Das and Gupta, 2012 from the Lower Triassic Panchet Formation of the Damodar Basin, and indeterminate trirachodontid teeth from the Middle Triassic Yerrapalli Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Basin (Bandyopadhyay and Sengupta, 1999, 2006; Bandyopadhyay and Ray, 2020). The Late Triassic is represented by the traversodontid Exaeretodon statisticae Chatterjee, 1982 and isolated postcanine teeth of the chiniquodontid Deccanodon maleriensis Nath and Yadagiri, 2007 from the lower part of the Maleri Formation (Chatterjee, 1982; Nath and Yadagiri, 2007), and sectorial teeth of the dromatheriid Rewaconodon tikiensis Datta, Das, and Luo, 2004 from the Tiki Formation of the Rewa Basin (Datta et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…

Figure 1.( 1 ) Major Gondwana basins of peninsular India—Damodar Basin (a), Son-Mahanadi Basin (b), Satpura Basin (c), Pranhita-Godavari Basin (d). ( 2 ) Generalized Triassic stratigraphy of the Gondwana basins (after Bandyopadhyay and Ray, 2020); cynodont-bearing horizons are marked in bold. ( 3 ) Geological map of the study area showing the fossil microsite (after Bhat et al, 2018a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New cynodonts (Therapsida, Eucynodontia) from the Late Triassic of India and their significances

Bhat

Ray

Datta³

2020

J. Paleontol.

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The Upper Triassic Tiki Formation of India has yielded several new cynodont taxa, which are described on the basis of multiple isolated teeth and a jaw fragment. A new species of dromatheriid, Rewaconodon indicus, is defined by a tri- and tetracuspid asymmetric crown, long anterior edge of the major cusp a, cingular cusps d and f, and marked constriction at the crown-root junction. Another new dromatheriid, Inditherium floris n. gen. n. sp., is characterized by a broad, flower-shaped pentacuspid crown, multiple cingular cusps, and a weak lingual cingulum is also described from the same horizon. In addition, a new mammaliamorph taxon, Tikiodon cromptoni n. gen. n. sp., is established on a tooth specimen, which has a shovel-shaped crown, three closely spaced main cusps, a pronounced lingual cingulum with multiple cingular cusps, and a root of incomplete root bifurcation. Such a tooth morphology occupies an intermediate position between the non-mammalian cynodonts and the early mammals, as is evident from the co-occurrence of various cynodont dental morphotypes in the Tiki Formation. Moreover, Late Triassic cynodonts occurred along narrow belts demarcated by paleolatitudes, though the Indian fauna shows both Laurasian and Gondwanan affinities. UUID: http://zoobank.org/c2c575ad-ee23-4f33-8a30-661c548a5b17

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Osteology of the sauropodomorph dinosaur Jaklapallisaurus asymmetricus from the Late Triassic of central India

Ezcurra,

Müller,

Novas

et al. 2023

The Anatomical Record

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The Gondwana formations exposed in the Pranhita‐Godavari Valley of central India include Middle Triassic to Lower Jurassic continental deposits that provide essential information about the tetrapod assemblages of that time, documenting some of the oldest known dinosaurs and the first faunas numerically dominated by this group. The Upper Maleri Formation of the Pranhita‐Godavari Basin preserves an early‐middle Norian dinosaur assemblage that provides information about the early evolutionary history of this group in central‐south Gondwana. This assemblage comprises sauropodomorph dinosaurs and an herrerasaurian, including two nominal species. Here, we describe in detail the anatomy of one of those early dinosaurs, the bagualosaurian sauropodomorph Jaklapallisaurus asymmetricus. The new anatomical information is used to investigate the position of the species in an updated quantitative phylogenetic analysis focused on early sauropodomorphs. The analysis recovered Jaklapallisaurus asymmetricus as a member of Unaysauridae, at the base of Plateosauria, together with Macrocollum itaquii and Unaysaurus tolentinoi from the early Norian of southern Brazil. This phylogenetic result indicates that the dispersal of early plateosaurian sauropodomorphs between the Southern Hemisphere and what nowadays is Europe would have occurred shortly after Ischigualastian times because of the extension of their ghost lineage. Thus, the presence of early plateosaurians in the early Norian of South America and India reduces a previously inferred diachrony between the biogeographic dispersals of theropods and sauropodomorphs during post‐Ischigualastian times.

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Gondwana Vertebrate Faunas of India: Their Diversity and Intercontinental Relationships

Abstract: The twelve Gondwanan stratigraphic horizons of India have yielded varied vertebrate fossils. The oldest fossil record is the Endothiodon-dominated multitaxic Kundaram fauna, which correlates the Kundaram Formation with several other coeval Late Permian

Cited by 27 publications

References 100 publications

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

Climatic influence on the growth pattern ofPanthasaurus maleriensisfrom the Late Triassic of India deduced from paleohistology

New cynodonts (Therapsida, Eucynodontia) from the Late Triassic of India and their significances

Osteology of the sauropodomorph dinosaur Jaklapallisaurus asymmetricus from the Late Triassic of central India

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