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The Lameta Formation, also known as the Infratrappean Beds, is a sedimentary geological formation found in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, India, associated with the Deccan Traps. It is of the Maastrichtian age, and is notable for its dinosaur fossils.
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Insular India was an isolated landmass which became the Indian subcontinent. Across the latter stages of the Cretaceous and most of the Paleocene, following the breakup of Gondwana, the Indian subcontinent remained an isolated landmass as the Indian Plate drifted across the Tethys Ocean, forming the Indian Ocean. The process of India's separation from Madagascar first began 88 million years ago, but complete isolation only occurred towards the end of the Maastrichtian, a process that has been suggested to be the creation of the Deccan Traps. Soon after, the land mass moved northward rather quickly, until contact with Asia was established 55 million years ago. Even then, both landmasses did not become fully united until around 35 million years ago, and periods of isolation occurred as recently as 24 million years ago.
Gypsonictops is an extinct genus of leptictidan mammals of the family Gypsonictopidae, which was described in 1927 by George Gaylord Simpson. Species in this genus were small mammals and the first representatives of the order Leptictida, that appeared during the Upper Cretaceous.
Indotriconodon magnus is an extinct mammal from the Late Cretaceous of India. An eutriconodont, it represents the geologically youngest of the group dating to the Maastrichtian just a few thousand years before the KT event, as well as a relatively large sized Mesozoic mammal.
References
- ↑ Boyer, Doug M.; Prasad, Guntupalli V. R.; Krause, David W.; Godinot, Marc; Goswami, Anjali; Verma, Omkar; Flynn, John J. (2010). "New postcrania of Deccanolestes from the Late Cretaceous of India and their bearing on the evolutionary and biogeographic history of euarchontan mammals". Naturwissenschaften. 97 (4): 365–77. Bibcode:2010NW.....97..365B. doi:10.1007/s00114-010-0648-0. PMID 20130827. S2CID 12188926.
- ↑ Smith, Thierry; Bast, Eric; Sigé, Bernard (2010). "Euarchontan affinity of Paleocene Afro-European adapisoriculid mammals and their origin in the late Cretaceous Deccan Traps of India". Naturwissenschaften. 97 (4): 417–22. Bibcode:2010NW.....97..417S. doi:10.1007/s00114-010-0651-5. PMID 20174778. S2CID 11529170.
- ↑ Erik R. Seiffert, The Oldest and Youngest Records of Afrosoricid Placentals from the Fayum Depression of Northern Egypt
- ↑ Prasad GVR, Sahni A (1988) First Cretaceous mammal from India. Nature 332:638–640.
- ↑ G. V. R. Prasad, J. J. Jaeger, A. Sahni, E. Gheerbrant, and C. K. Khajuria. 1994. Eutherian mammals from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) inter-trappean beds of Naskal, Andhra Pradesh, India. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14(2):260-277
- ↑ G. V. R. Prasad, O. Verma, E. Gheerbrant, A. Goswami, A. Khosla, V. Parmar, and A. Sahni. 2010. First mammal evidence from the Late Cretaceous of India for biotic dispersal between India and Africa at the KT transition. Comptes Rendus Palevol 9:63-71
- ↑ WILSON, Gregory P, NEW MAMMALIAN FOSSILS FROM THE INTERTRAPPEAN BEDS OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE DECCAN VOLCANIC PROVINCE AND THE CRETACEOUS–PALEOGENE TRANSITION IN INDIA, October 27, 2016
