Indian Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Nesting Sites and Their Systematic Studies
Hundreds of Indian Late Cretaceous sauropod and theropod nests, eggs and eggshells have been recorded from a specific lithologic unit (Lameta Limestone) at Jabalpur, Bagh, Kheda–Panchmahal and in the Dongargaon-Pisdura areas of peninsular India. This chap
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Indian Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Nesting Sites and Their Systematic Studies
4.1 Introduction This chapter discusses in detail the presence of Indian dinosaur eggs and eggshells in a specific lithotype (Lameta Limestone or pedogenized calcrete) of the Lameta Formation. Over the last three decades, hundreds of dinosaur nests including eggs and eggshells have been recovered from east, west and central peninsular India. This book presents the first detailed micro- and ultrastructural studies of dinosaur eggshell fragments from the Late Cretaceous Lameta Formation at Jabalpur, Bagh, Kheda–Panchmahal and in the Dongargaon-Pisdura areas. In the absence of embryonic skeletal remains, Chinese, Russian, American, French and Indian workers devised a parataxonomic scheme for classifying fossil dinosaur eggs and eggshells. The chapter also reviews at length the brief history of parataxonomic and structural classification of fossil eggshells with special reference to the current status and review of the parataxonomic classification of Late Cretaceous dinosaur eggshell oospecies in India. Most of the Indian dinosaur eggs and eggshells belong to the two oofamilies, Megaloolithidae and Fusioolithidae, which have been broadly recorded and are the most predominant oofamilies from the Late Cretaceous Deccan volcanic sedimentary sequences of India. The above- mentioned two oofamilies exhibit distinct affinities with eggshell oospecies of Spain and France (Europe), Morocco (Africa) and Argentina (South America). The three other oofamilies (Laevisoolithidae, Spheroolithidae and Elongatoolithidae) are likewise known and are confined to a couple of localities in Central India and Gujarat (western India). A total of 14 eggshell oospecies belonging to the above-mentioned oofamilies are discussed in detail in this chapter.
© 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_4
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4 Indian Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Nesting Sites and Their Systematic Studies
4.2 Nests, Eggs and Eggshell Distribution The Indian dinosaur nesting sites are widespread, as sauropods preferred to lay their eggs in a single major lithology of the Lameta Formation, i.e., Lameta Limestone (= sandy carbonate), i.e., pedogenized calcrete, which occupies a similar stratigraphic position throughout east-west, southern and central peninsular India (Fig. 4.1, e.g., Sahni and Khosla 1994b; Sahni et al. 1994; Tandon et al. 1995; Khosla and Sahni 1995; Mohabey 1996a, b, 1998, 2000, 2001; Tandon and Andrews 2001; VianeyLiaud et al. 2003; Fernández and Khosla 2015; Khosla and Verma 2015; Khosla 2017, 2019; Dhiman et al. 2019; Kumari et al. 2020). The dinosaur-egg-bearing Lameta Limestone is overlain by Deccan volcanic basalts. Eggshell fragments are also recorded in the intertrappean beds and are found intercalated within the lava flows. During the la
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