Ben Creisler
Some chapters from a new book that are related to Mesozoic tetrapods, including two new mammals. (Other chapters include Cenozoic mammals.):
Google Books preview includes good portions of the text:
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Mesozoic tetrapod stuff:
Mammals:
An isolated upper premolar from the Early Cretaceous (late Albian) Griman Creek Formation of Lightning Ridge, NSW, Australia, represents a new genus and species of a toothed monotreme that is much larger than any known from there or elsewhere.
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Kryoparvus gerriti gen. et sp. nov.
Thomas H. Rich, Peter Trusler, Lesley Kool, David Pickering, Alistair Evans, Karen Siu Anton Maksimenko, Martin Kundrat, Neil J. Gostling, Steven Morton & Patricia Vickers-Rich (2020)
A Third, Remarkably Small, Tribosphenic Mammal from the Mesozoic of Australia.
In: Prasad G.V., Patnaik R. (eds) Biological Consequences of Plate Tectonics. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Cham.
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_3https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_3
A third species of tribosphenic mammal is now known from Australia. Owing to the fragmentary nature of the two specimens on which this new, diminutive species is based, its affinities within the tribosphenic Mammalia are uncertain. When better known, they could well prove to belong to the Ausktribosphenidae. In estimated body mass, 2 g, the new species is amongst the smallest mammals known.
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Dinosaurs:
The Middle Jurassic Kota Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Valley in peninsular India is well known for its vertebrate fauna comprising fishes, sphenodontians, iguanian lizards, cryptodire turtle, crocodilians, pterosaurs, sauropod dinosaurs and early mammals. However, no theropod and undoubted ornithischian dinosaur remains have been reported from the Jurassic of India until now. Here we describe the first theropod dinosaur teeth representing five morphotypes of Dromaeosauridae, one Richardoestesia-like form, and one Theropoda indet. The ornithischian dinosaur teeth are described under five morphotypes of Ornithischia indet. The new dinosaur fauna improves the diversity of the Jurassic vertebrate fauna of India significantly. It also improves the impoverished Jurassic record of dromaeosaurid and primitive ornithischian dinosaurs of the Gondwana. At higher taxonomic levels, the Kota fauna demonstrates close compositional similarities with Laurasian Jurassic faunas, such as the Middle Jurassic fauna of England, and limited Gondwanan affinities, which may suggest closer connection with the Laurasian continents and existence of some biogeographic partitioning within the Gondwana in the Jurassic. However, this interpretation is subject to further verification in the least explored areas of Gondwana.
[NOTE: Google Books preview includes large parts of this chapter]
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Sankar Chatterjee. (2020)
The Age of Dinosaurs in the Land of Gonds.
In: Prasad G.V., Patnaik R. (eds) Biological Consequences of Plate Tectonics. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Cham.
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_8https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_8The fossil record of dinosaurs from India provides a highly significant contribution to understanding the origin and evolution of dinosaurs and their paleobiogeographic significance. As India rifted from Gondwana and drifted northwards during the age of dinosaurs, the mobile episode in Indian geology provides a unique opportunity to study the diversity of dinosaurs in time and space. The dinosaurs from the Gondwana and post-Gondwana sediments of India have been collected and studied since their discovery in the 1920s, but the full range of their significance and evolutionary history remained fragmentary. After the independence of India, a renaissance arose in the study of dinosaurs at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) under the leadership of Pamela Robinson, as more and more dinosaur skeletons were discovered from different localities. This exploration by ISI paleontologists represented a pivotal moment in the history of vertebrate paleontology in India and became a starting point for a remarkable increase in our knowledge of Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous dinosaur faunas. It inspired a new generation of students working under Ashok Sahniâs direction at Panjab University to engage in the Cretaceous research. This paper offers an updated and comprehensive review of the anatomy, systematics, and evolution of Indian dinosaurs within historical, paleobiogeographic, and paleoecologic contexts. The occurrence of Indian dinosaurs is currently restricted to central and southern India, and the record extends across all three Mesozoic periods. It is generally regarded that dinosaurs originated in the Late Triassic Period in Argentina, about 230 million years ago. However, Alwalkeria, a theropod discovered in the Lower Maleri Formation of India, was contemporaneous with the oldest Argentinean dinosaurs. Similarly, Barapasaurus from the Early Jurassic Kota Formation is considered as one of the oldest, gigantic sauropod dinosaurs with a quadrupedal pose. The Late Triassic and Early Jurassic dinosaurs of India are diverse and document their early radiation. With the breakup of Gondwana, India began to disintegrate and drifted northwards, carrying its dinosaur fauna like a passenger ship, until it collided with the Oman-Kohistan-Ladakh Arc in the Late Cretaceous, forming a biotic corridor to Africa and Europe. The Late Cretaceous dinosaurs from the Lameta Formation, consisting of several species of titanosaurs and abelisaurs, provide intimate documentation of the last geologic minutes before their extinction. Along with dinosaur bones, the largest titanosaurid hatchery is known from the Lameta Formation, extending for more than 1,000 km. Most egg clutches contain about 10 to 12 spherical eggs ranging in diameter from 15 to 20 cm. Surprisingly, these eggs were empty, showing no signs of embryos, perhaps indicating hatching failure during some environmental crisis. At the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, India was ground zero for two catastrophic eventsâthe Shiva impact and Deccan volcanismâboth linked to dinosaur extinction. The combination of twin asteroid impacts (Chicxulub and Shiva), with prolonged Deccan volcanism created an unprecedented and ultimately catastrophic environmental crisis across the globe, triggering the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
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Reptiles and Amphibians
Jean-Claude Rage, Guntupalli V. R. Prasad, Omkar Verma, Ashu Khosla & Varun Parmar (2020)
Anuran Lissamphibian and Squamate Reptiles from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Deccan Intertrappean Sites in Central India, with a Review of Lissamphibian and Squamate Diversity in the Northward Drifting Indian Plate.
In: Prasad G.V., Patnaik R. (eds) Biological Consequences of Plate Tectonics. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Cham.
doi:
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_6https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_6
The Maastrichtian intertrappean beds of Kisalpuri and Kelapur, India, have yielded new amphibian and squamate reptile fossils that increase our knowledge of these groups. In addition to focusing on these two localities, we review the faunas of amphibians and squamates from other Maastrichtian intertrappean beds. In the Maastrichtian sites of India, aside from a possible salamander, amphibians are all anurans. Costata (formerly Discoglossidae) and Gobiatidae may be present and Neobatrachia are represented by four or five morphotypes. Importantly, one of the anurans (?Gobiatidae) appears identical to a form from the Late Cretaceous of Central Asia. Squamates are represented by lizards and snakes. Lizards comprise an Anguidae and five or six indeterminate taxa, including possible scincomorphs. Snakes include a primitive (possible stem) form, three Madtsoiidae, one Nigerophiidae, perhaps a booid, and a peculiar, unnamed taxon. These assemblages from Maastrichtian sites in India include taxa of both Laurasian and Gondwanan origins, but most taxa are still unidentifiable at the familial level and below.
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We report here Pelomedusoides turtle remains found in the Late Cretaceous deposits of peninsular India. Previously reported from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) strata such as the intertrappean beds of Bombay and Kachchh (western India), Raibasa and Kisalpuri (central India), infratrappean Lameta Formation (Pisdura) (central India) and the Kallamedu Formation (southeastern India), and also Early Albian -- Middle Turonian beds of the Karai Formation (southeastern India), the new material from the intertrappean beds of Upparhatti (Karnataka state), represents the first record of turtles from southwestern India. It is compared with the previous Cretaceous discoveries from India, which are also reviewed here. The Maastrichtian turtle fauna of India is rich with about nine taxa of Bothremydidae but lacks members of Podocnemididae. The turtle fauna of Upparhatti, consisting of shell, limb, few skull and neck elements, represents about three indeterminate taxa at genus and species level. An analysis of all the Cretaceous turtle taxa of India provided us with an opportunity to review the turtle paleobiogeography in the context of Africa -- Madagascar -- India land connections.
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