Historical Background of Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Studies and Associated Biota in India
This chapter summarizes the record of dinosaur (skeletal and nests) studies in India from 1828 to 2020. For the last 180 years, strata of the Lameta Formation have been extensively studied for fossil dinosaurs. The first dinosaur skeletal remains were exc
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Historical Background of Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Studies and Associated Biota in India
2.1 Introduction This chapter presents a summary of the previous investigations carried out by various workers on the Deccan volcanic sedimentary sequences of peninsular India. These sedimentary sequences include the Lameta Formation, which are also known as Infratrappean Beds, and are known to contain hundreds of dinosaur nests, including eggs and eggshell fragments, which are found in scattered outcrops in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat of peninsular India. Captain Sleeman (1828, cited in Matley 1921) was the pioneer worker who discovered the first sauropod caudal vertebrae in the Lameta Formation of Jabalpur (Central India). The infratrappean beds are of Maastrichtian age (Upper Cretaceous) and are well known for their dinosaur skeletal remains. Numerous genera of dinosaurs are known, including the titanosaur sauropod Isisaurus and the abelisaurs Rajasaurus, Rahiolisaurus, Laevisuchus, Indosuchus and Indosaurus. Apart from dinosaurs, other important discoveries include the recovery of an incomplete skeleton of a 3.5-m-long snake, Sanajeh indicus, from the Maastrichtian Lameta Formation at Dhori Dungri (Gujarat), is interesting on the grounds that the nearby relationship of a fossilized snake with a titanosaurid (=Megaloolithus) egg suggests that this specific types of snake regularly visited the sauropod egg-laying grounds and went after hatchlings of Megaloolithus eggs. The infratrappean beds have also yielded coprolites, crocodiles, turtles, frogs and microbiota such as ostracods, gastropods, charophytes, plant fossils and palynoassemblages. The intertrappean beds, which are intercalated between two Deccan basalts, also have yielded a rich assemblage of vertebrate and invertebrate remains. Based on the vertebrate and invertebrate assemblages, various workers interpreted the Lameta Formation of peninsular India as an alluvial-limnic environment of deposition or the deposits of fluvial and pedogenically modified semi-arid fan, palustrine flat deposits.
© 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_2
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2 Historical Background of Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Studies and Associated Biot…
2.2 Historical Perspective The earliest record of fossils in the Lameta Formation was made in 1828 at Jabalpur by Captain Sleeman (cited in Matley 1921). He discovered large bones associated with several beautifully preserved petrified stems and wood fragments together with roots, trunks and branches from the topmost part of the Lametas. The term “Lameta” was first used by Medlicott (1860) for the rocks lying below the traps at Lameta Ghat on the Narbada River, about 15 km SW of Jabalpur city. Oldham (1871) prepared a sketch map of the geology of Madhya Pradesh and considered the Jabalpur Beds to be of Ju
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