Paleobiogeographical inferences of Indian Late Cretaceous vertebrates with special reference to dinosaurs

ABSTRACT

The Infra- and Intertrappean deposits have yielded diverse vertebrates, especially dinosaurs, mammals, snakes, turtles, crocodiles, and invertebrates. The biotic assemblages demonstrate a remarkable degree of resemblance between these deposits. The palaeobiogeographical affinities of the paleobiota are more intricate, yielding remains of Gondwanan and Laurasian affinities, and some endemic forms. In order to explain the presence of such a complex biota during the northward drift of the Indian plate (Late Cretaceous period), different palaeobiogeographical models have been proposed. Special emphasis has been given in this paper to the palaeobiogeographical implications of Indian Late Cretaceous dinosaurs. The size of the animal played an essential role in determining the nature of the biotic interchange between India and its nearby landmasses. The faunal exchange between India and Asia through the Kohistan Dras volcanic arc system has been considered as the superlative migratory route, which favoured the small fauna during trans-maritime dispersal. Conversely, it was difficult for small animals to cross huge marine boundaries, other than for the very large vertebrates (especially dinosaurs). Consequently, a straight terrestrial course, especially in the northern India, is a lesser probability, and the dispersal of these huge vertebrates ought to be seen as part of a ‘Pan Gondwanan’ model.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian
• Late Cretaceous
• dinosaurs
• Palaeobiogeography
• vertebrates

Dedication

I am delighted to dedicate this paper to my guide and mentor Professor Ashok Sahni (INSA senior scientist and Emeritus Professor at Panjab and Lucknow universities, India) who is one of the world’s driving masters on the vertebrate faunas of Indian Cretaceous and Eocene System. I am grateful to him for shaping my knowledge about the palaeobiogeography of the Indian Late Cretaceous vertebrates.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Vivesh Vir Kapur, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow and Dr. Omkar Verma (IGNOU, New Delhi) for immense help. I am greatly indebted to the critical reader, Professor S.G. Lucas (America) for the crucial checking, linguistic corrections, extremely valuable comments and suggestions that improved the paper significantly. Sincere thanks are also due to three anonymous reviewers for their perceptive reviews of the manuscript. I am also thankful to DST PURSE project (grant no. 753/Dean Research dated 29.09.2010 Panjab University, Chandigarh) and the Department of Science and Technology Government of India, New Delhi (grant number SR/S4/ES-382/2008) for the financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by DST PURSE project (Panjab University, Chandigarh) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi [grant number SR/S4/ES-382/2008].