Historical Background of Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Studies and Associated Biota in India

A freshwater ostracod assemblage from the Kesavi intertrappean beds (latest Cretaceous/earliest Paleocene) of lower Narmada Valley, Malwa Sub-province of Deccan Traps, Dhar District, Madhya Pradesh, India

“…Initially, the age of the Deccan volcano was considered early Tertiary (Hislop, 1860;Hora, 1938). Subsequent studies, based on radiometric dating, magnetostratigraphy and macroand micropaleontology, suggested that most of the eruption (>80%) occurred in less than one million years around the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary at 65 Ma (Bajpai & Prasad 2000;Bajpai et al, 2013;Chenet et al, 2007;Courtillot et al, 1986;Duncan & Pyle, 1988;Kania et al, 2022;Keller et al, 2009aKeller et al, , 2009bKhosla & Lucas, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2020dKhosla et al, 2022;Mantilla et al, 2022;Schoene et al, 2019;Self et al, 2022;Vandamme et al, 1991;Verma & Khosla, 2019;Verma et al, 2016;and references therein).…”

“…However, the faunal assemblage, including large and small vertebrates, invertebrates reported from the intertrappean and infratrappean, deposits shows paleobiogeographically complex (both Laurasain and Gondwana) affinity, such as the fossil assemblage (gondwanatherian [sudamericid] mammals; abelisaurid theropods and titanosauriform sauropods; notosuchian crocodiles; nigerophiid and madtsoiid snakes; bothremydid turtles and the myobatracid, leptodactylid, ranoid and hyalid frogs exhibits Gondwana faunal affinity) (Chatterjee et al, 2017;Khosla, 2021). The previously discovered Laurasian affinity fossil assemblage includes frogs (Pelobatidae, Gobiatinae, Costata), lizards (anguimorph), charophytes and palynomorphs, suggesting faunal and floral exchanges between India and Eurasia with the help of sweepstakes dispersal route via Kohistan-Dras island arc system (Ali & Aitchison, 2008;Goswami et al, 2011;Kapur & Khosla, 2016Khosla, 2021;Khosla & Lucas, 2020a, 2020bKhosla et al, 2022;Verma et al, 2016). The present assemblage from Kesavi intertrappeans also confirms the presence of endemism concerning the species of Eucypris, Gomphocythere and Cypriodopsis; besides endemism, some of the taxa from Kesavi (Gomphocythere, Limnocythere and Cypria) also support the out-of-India hypothesis, according to which the origin of several elements of Asian biota occurred in India (see Whatley & Bajpai, 2006).…”