Tracking the migration of the Indian continent using the carbonate clumped isotope technique on Phanerozoic soil carbonates

Abstract

Approximately 140 million years ago, the Indian plate separated from Gondwana and migrated by almost 90° latitude to its current location, forming the Himalayan-Tibetan system. Large discrepancies exist in the rate of migration of Indian plate during Phanerozoic. Here we describe a new approach to paleo-latitudinal reconstruction based on simultaneous determination of carbonate formation temperature and δ18O of soil carbonates, constrained by the abundances of 13C-18O bonds in palaeosol carbonates. Assuming that the palaeosol carbonates have a strong relationship with the composition of the meteoric water, δ18O carbonate of palaeosol can constrain paleo-latitudinal position. Weighted mean annual rainfall δ18O water values measured at several stations across the southern latitudes are used to derive a polynomial equation: δ18Ow = −0.006 × (LAT)2 − 0.294 × (LAT) − 5.29 which is used for latitudinal reconstruction. We use this approach to show the northward migration of the Indian plate from 46.8 ± 5.8°S during the Permian (269 M.y.) to 30 ± 11°S during the Triassic (248 M.y.), 14.7 ± 8.7°S during the early Cretaceous (135 M.y.), and 28 ± 8.8°S during the late Cretaceous (68 M.y.). Soil carbonate δ18O provides an alternative method for tracing the latitudinal position of Indian plate in the past and the estimates are consistent with the paleo-magnetic records which document the position of Indian plate prior to 135 ± 3 M.y.

Variable thermoregulation of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs inferred by clumped isotope analysis of fossilized eggshell carbonates

“…In the present study, we apply the clumped isotope thermometer to several fossilized eggshell samples of two species of Indian dinosaurs to estimate their body temperatures. The Indian landmass belongs to the Asian Plate and during the Late Cretaceous the sampling region was located in the southern hemisphere at a latitude of ~22 o S and had mean air temperature of about 25 °C ( Chen et al., 2013 ; Ghosh et al., 2016 ). We conjectured that a comparison of the eggshell temperatures with the late Cretaceous environmental temperature could offer valuable constraints on the models of metabolism of dinosaurs.…”

South American Triassic geochronology: Constraints and uncertainties for the tempo of Gondwanan non-marine vertebrate evolution

“…The Gondwanan continents expose extensive early Mesozoic non-marine sedimentary sequences that contain key paleoenvironmental and biotic records for understanding global change during this time (e.g., Zavattieri and Batten, 1996;Anderson et al 1998;de Wit et al 2002;Artabe et al 2007;Langer et al 2007;Colombi and Parrish, 2008;Mancuso and Marsicano, 2008;Mancuso, 2009;Novas et al 2011Novas et al , 2021Retallack et al 2011;Irmis and Whiteside, 2012;Césari and Colombi, 2013;Horn et al 2013Horn et al , 2018aSidor et al 2013;Smith and Botha-Brink, 2014;Benavente et al 2015Benavente et al , 2019Ghosh et al 2016;Marsicano et al 2016;Button et al 2017;Fielding et al 2019;Bordy et al 2020;). These sedimentary archives include a particularly complete record of the Triassic Period, and thus are important for understanding key Earth history events such as mass extinction events, the emplacement of J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f several large igneous provinces, and the evolution of life on land in a high-CO2 greenhouse world (e.g., Mundil et al 2004;Payne et al 2004;Greene et al 2010;Whiteside et al 2010;Retallack et al 2011;Dal Corso et al 2015;Schaller et al 2015;Burgess et al 2017).…”