Marine vertebrates from the ‘middle’ Cretaceous (early Cenomanian) of South India

A remarkable case of a shark-bitten elasmosaurid plesiosaur

“…4) illustrated six teeth from the early Cenomanian part of the Karai Formation of the Cauvery Basin, Tamil Nadu, India, as Cretalamna appendiculata. We disagree with the assigned position of at least one of the teeth (Underwood et al 2011: fig. 4C, D), which they cautiously referred to the third lower anterior file.…”

“…Within a few years, usage of the original spelling was embraced by a growing number of workers (e.g., Cook et al 2008;Everhart 2005;Kriwet and Benton 2004;Kriwet et al 2008;Shimada 2007;Shimada et al 2006). Over the last few years a majority of researchers discussing or mentioning the genus in publications have used the original spelling Cretalamna (e.g., Adolfssen and Ward 2015;Andreev and Motchurova-Dekova 2010;Becker et al 2010;Bogan and Gallina 2011;Bourdon and Everhart 2011;Cook et al 2011Cook et al , 2013Cumbaa et al 2010;Cuny et al 2012;Einarsson et al 2010;Eriksson et al 2011;Hamm and Cicimurri 2011;Retzler et al 2013;Sato et al 2012;Shimada et al 2010;Siverson et al 2013;Underwood and Cumbaa 2010;Underwood et al 2011;Ward 2009). The replacement of Cretolamna with Cretalamna was strongly opposed by Cappetta (2000Cappetta ( , 2012.…”

“…nov. has a sigmoidally curved cusp in profile view and possess a distal lobe much thicker than that in C. ewelli sp. nov. Underwood et al (2011: fig. 4) illustrated six teeth from the early Cenomanian part of the Karai Formation of the Cauvery Basin, Tamil Nadu, India, as Cretalamna appendiculata.…”

“…Third lower jaw teeth in Cretalamna would typically have a more robust root with a rather tightly curved basal edge in labial/lingual views. One of the teeth referred to the first lower lateral file (Underwood et al 2011: fig. 4E, F) might be a LP1 or LP2 but the lack of profile and basal images makes it difficult to fully evaluate the positional assignment of the tooth.…”

Cretaceous vertebrate fauna of the Cauvery Basin, southern India: Palaeodiversity and palaeobiogeographic implications

“…These vertebrate faunas comprise frogs, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, turtles, dinosaurs and mammals and have received extensive attention as far as the evolution and biogeography of the Late Cretaceous vertebrates of India are concerned (Khosla and Verma, 2014 and references therein). Despite the fact that Cretaceous deposits of the Cauvery Basin, south India have been known to yield vertebrate remains since 1845, its vertebrate fauna only received significant attention recently (Underwood et al, 2011;Verma et al, 2012a;Goswami et al, 2013;Prasad et al, 2013). This communication is intended to review the Cretaceous vertebrate diversity of the Cauvery Basin and to provide an account of its biostratigraphic, Fig.…”