Geology and Stratigraphy of Dinosaur Eggs and Eggshell-Bearing Infra- and Intertrappean Beds of Peninsular India

The dinosaur-egg-rich Lameta Formation is widely distributed over 10,000 km and varies in thickness from 3 to 12 m and is well exposed in five inland basins: (1) Jabalpur; (2) Dhar and Jhabua Districts; (3) Salbardi-Belkhar, Betul district, Madhya Pradesh

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Geology and Stratigraphy of Dinosaur Eggs and Eggshell-Bearing Infraand Intertrappean Beds of Peninsular India

3.1  Introduction This chapter presents a detailed overview of the geological setting of the dinosaur-­ egg- and eggshell-bearing Lameta Formation of Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh). The basement rocks are Archaeans, which are overlain by Mid-Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age Jabalpur Formation consisting of two lithounits (Jabalpur Sandstone and Jabalpur clays). The Jabalpur Formation is further overlain by the Lameta Formation consisting of five lithounits (Green Sandstone, Lower Limestone, Mottled Nodular Bed, Upper Limestone and Upper Sandstone) and further overlain by the Deccan traps, intertrappeans and Pleistocene sediments. Three sections (Chui Hill, Bara Simla Hill and Lameta Ghat) were selected for the dinosaur egg and eggshell studies. The second area of study lies in and around the well-known village Bagh in districts Dhar and Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh. The dinosaur-egg-rich Lameta Formation at Bagh is about 3–5 m thick and is exposed in the Bagh Caves, Padalya, Dholiya, Padiyal, Kadwal and Walpur-Kulwat sections, where it overlies marine Bagh Beds (Nimar Sandstone, Nodular Limestone and Coralline Limestone). The Bagh beds are underlain by Bijawar metamorphics and Archaeans as basement rocks. The Lameta Formation is overlain by rocks of the Deccan volcanic suite. The third area of study lies in and around the famous village Rahioli in Kheda and district of Gujarat. The dinosaur-egg-bearing Lameta Formation at Kheda (Rahioli, Dhuvadiya, Phensani, Lavariya Muwada, Jetholi, Kevadiya and Khempur sections) is 3–4  m thick and unconformably overlies the Aravalli metasediments and Godhra granitoids of Precambrian age. The other four sections (Dholidhanti, Mirakheri, Paori and Waniawao) lie in the District Panchmahal, Gujarat. The basement rocks are phyllites and quartzites belonging to the Aravalli SuperGroup of Precambrian age. These rocks are overlain by the 3-m-thick Lameta Limestone, which are rich in dinosaur eggs. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 A. Khosla, S. G. Lucas, Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Eggs and Eggshells of Peninsular India, Topics in Geobiology 51, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56454-4_3

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3  Geology and Stratigraphy of Dinosaur Eggs and Eggshell-Bearing Infra-…

The fifth area of study is the Anjar section, which is intertrappean and lies in the village Viri in the Anjar area, Gujarat. The intertrappean beds at Anjar are about 2 m thick, and the basement rocks are not exposed. The intertrappean beds are overlain by rocks of the Deccan volcanic suite. The sixth area of study is the Pisdura section, which lies near Dongargaon village (District Chandrapur, Maharashtra). The basal rocks exposed here are Precambrian and Gondwana rocks, which are, in turn, overlain by the 9-m-thick Lameta Formation rich in dinosaur eggshells.

3.2  General Geology of the Jabalpur Area The present investigation was undertak