REVISED PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF THE DINOSAUR BEARING MAASTRICHTIAN LAMETA FORMATION, CENTRAL AND WESTERN INDIA: IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF NEWLY IDENTIFIED SALBARDI-BELKHER INLAND BASIN

• Main Authors: RUPESH S. MANKAR, ASHOK K. SRIVASTAVA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro 2019-03-01
• Series: Journal of Sedimentary Environments
• Subjects: paleogeography; maastrichtian; dinosaur; inland basin; fluvial-lacustrine; paleoenvironment
• Online Access: https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/jse/article/view/39318

The Lameta sediments covering the geographical area of about 5,000 km2 in central and western India are well documented for their sedimentological and paleobiologic aspects in last four decades. Occurrences of dinosaurian remains including bones, coprolites, eggs, eggshells and nests in mainly arenaceous lithounits of the successions exposed at various localities have been widely used as a significant tool for precise reconstructions of paleogeographic and paleoenvironmental set-up during the Maastrichtian period. Based on sedimentological and paleobiologic aspects, earlier it was considered that the Lameta sedimentation took place in only five inland basins viz., i) Nand-Dongargaon, ii) Jabalpur, iii) Sagar (Saugor), iv) Ambikapur-Amarkantak and v) Balasinor-Jhabua. Recently, a sixth inland basin has been added by Mankar and Srivastava, Salbardi-Belkher, which has been highlighted because of its bearing on the overall picture of Lameta sediments deposition, dinosaur inhabitation and its paleogeographic limit. The categorizations of these inland basins had been done on the basis of detailed study including correlations of litho- and biofacies in respective areas. The presently explored Salbardi-Belkher area, owing several localities of Lameta sediments having preservations of skeletal remains, nest and eggs of dinosaurs, is altogether a separate geographical set-up, besides the earlier reported five inland basins. Taking into consideration of the lithofacies architecture of various successions of the new basin, it has been interpreted that the deposition of the Lameta sediments during the Maastrichtian period was contemporaneously taking place in this additional inland basin, situated in the west of Nand-Dongargaon inland basin. This addition of new inland basin of fluvial regime including evidences of dinosaur remains depicts a revised paleogeographic set-up of Lameta sedimentation in central and western India.