Dhirendra Kumar Pandey

Central University of South Bihar · Department of Geology

The Tethyan sediments in the Spiti Valley deposited along the northern margin of Indian craton are rich in fossils and hold a key value in the stratigraphy of the Indian Himalaya and could become a vital geoheritage site. Such geological sites need to be preserved, making them available for our future generation geoscientists. The present study aim...

A diverse molluscan assemblage dominated by turritellid gastropods found in Kachchh, western India, has been interpreted in the past as Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) in age, based on associated undoubtedly Oxfordian ammonites. Recently, several investigations focused on the assemblage dealing with taxonomic, paleoecological, and evolutionary aspects. A...

The upper Tithonian zone in the Kachchh Basin is marked by the first appearance of Virqatosphinctes communis Spath . It also indicates the first appearance of the genus Virqatosphinctes. The Densiplicatus zone is marked by the first appearance of the zonal index Virgatosphinctes densiplicatus (Waagen) & V. cf. densiplicatus (Waagen) which are also...

Geoconservation emphasises the conservation of geodiversity for its inherent geoheritage and ecological value. The Jaisalmer Basin in the Thar Desert in India has a number of naturally occurring places of geological importance and landscapes with aesthetic features that are appealing to people all over the world and play a significant role in Earth...

Abstract The present study describes and illustrates six bivalve taxa from the Early Bathonian to Early Callovian Ferruginous Oolite Formation and 24 taxa from the Callovian to basal-most Cretaceous Spiti Shale Formation of the Spiti and Zanskar areas in the Indian Himalayas. The Spiti Shale Formation contains a low-diversity bivalve fauna that i...

The Himalayan Tethyan sequence documents a significant transgressive event from Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic. The transgressive events represent thick carbonate deposits overlying the Late Triassic carbonate reef environment. A systematic study of the sections at the top of Kioto Limestone deposits in the Spiti Valley reveals a Middle Jurassic...

A Hildoglochiceras -rich horizon is reported from a thin carbonate intercalation within the siliciclastic Upper Jurassic Jhuran Formation of the Jara Dome, western Kachchh Mainland. The Hildoglochiceras specimens have been used for the first population-level study of the genus based on a multivariate analysis. High phenotype instability in the larg...

The stable isotope (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O) and element (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca) composition of 374 well-preserved belemnites, bivalves, and brachiopods of the Kachchh and Jaisalmer basins in western India were used to reconstruct climatic changes in the Middle and Late Jurassic time interval. Absolute water temperatures reconstructed from δ¹⁸Oshell values depend on the...

Several well-preserved impressions of Ptilophyllum and Cladophlebis from the Upper Kimmeridgian part of the Jhuran Formation at the Jhuran River are described and illustrated. The presence of well-preserved leaf fossils and plant debris suggest an increasing terrestrial influence during the filling of the Kachchh Basin in the Late Jurassic. A lone...

Middle to Late Jurassic belemnites from the Spiti and Zanskar valleys in the Indian Himalayas were used for stable isotope (δ ¹³ C, δ ¹⁸ O) and element (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca) analyses. Although the Himalayan orogeny deformed and altered a large portion of the collected fossils, cathodoluminescence and scanning electron microscopy in combination with analys...

Paraboliceras is a widely distributed ammonite genus of the Indo-Pacific Realm recorded from the Spiti Himalaya to New Zealand. It has been recorded as an index fossil of Kimmeridgian strata in the Nepal Himalaya, but has also been recorded in the Tithonian strata of the Indian Himalaya. Paraboliceras evolved apparently in New Zealand from the Late...

The Spiti Shale Formation is a widely distributed stratigraphic unit of the passive northern margin of the Indian craton, deposited between the Callovian and earliest Cretaceous. The siliciclastic strata are dominated by dark-grey to black argillaceous silt. As the formation has undergone intense tectonic stress involving folding and faulting, it i...

Calcareous nannofossilNannofossils biostratigraphy has been attempted for the first time on black shaleBlack shale of the Lower Member of the Spiti FormationSpiti Formation exposed in LangzaLangza area, Spiti ValleySpiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh. AmmonitesAmmonites and dinoflagellateDinoflagellate cysts biostratigraphyBiostratigraphy usually assign...

The Kachchh Rift Basin of western India is known for several geological findings and revelations for more than a century. Earth scientists from India and the globe have played a significant role in placing the Kachchh Basin's geology at a global level. A basin is a place for geologists to understand typical geological processes with textbook exampl...

The siliciclastic Jhuran Formation of the Kachchh Basin, a rift basin bordering the Malagasy Seaway, documents the filling of the basin during the late syn-rift stage. The marine, more than 700-m-thick Tithonian part of the succession in the western part of the basin is composed of highly asymmetric transgressive–regressive cycles and is nearly unf...

Scientific knowledge has led us to believe that the gap between the living and the non-living world is indisputable and no inbetween category exists. However, naturally growing minerals cannot be ignored, therefore a third category of entities, between the living and the non-living, that may be called “para-living”, has been proposed. This ‘missing...

The Wagad Uplift is a region in the eastern part of the Kachchh Basin of western India which exposes Middle to Upper Jurassic sedimentary rocks. The more than 520 m thick succession is dominated by third-order cycles with highstand systems tracts being composed of coarsening-upwards parasequences. The Callovian to Lower Oxfordian succession is domi...

Two fossil shark teeth (Galeorhinus and Physogaleus), recorded from Lower Eocene sediments of the Khuiala Formation Jaisalmer Basin, are being described and illustrated. This is the first record of Physogaleus from the Jaisalmer Basin. The record of Galeorhinus from the Jaisalmer Basin suggests subtropical sea condition during Early Eocene time.

A set of two to three prominent hardgrounds can be traced for more than 40 km from east to west within the Jurassic succession of the Jaisalmer Basin at the western margin of the Indian Craton. The hardgrounds started to form under subtidal conditions in a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic setting during the last phase of a transgressive systems tract,...

Thirty Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) ammonite specimens of the genera Torquatisphinctes, Pachysphinctes, Katroliceras, and Indodichotomoceras collected from two horizons in the eastern part of the Kachchh Basin were phenetically classified. First, 23 morphological characters were selected for the analysis. The difference matrix was generated by tre...

Gangta Bet, situated between the Wagad Uplift and Khadir Island in the Kachchh Basin, is composed of Callovian to Oxfordian fossiliferous sedimentary rocks, in which brachiopods are an important component, especially in a local marker horizon (the Brachiopod Bed). In total, six taxa are discussed here: Bihendulirhynchia brevicostata, Kallirhynchia...

The uppermost part of the Upper Bathonian Sponge Limestone member, Patcham Formation, of the Jhura Dome of Kachchh Mainland is a thickening- and shallowing-upward succession topped by medium- to thick-bedded hummocky cross-stratified grainstones deposited by storm waves. Occasionally, thin, commonly lenticular, intraclastic–bioclastic silty marl in...

An articulated and partially preserved skeleton of an ichthyosaur was found in the Upper Jurassic (Upper Kimmeridgian) Katrol Formation exposed at a site south of the village Lodai in Kachchh district, Gujarat (western India). Here we present a detailed description and inferred taxonomic relationship of the specimen. The present study revealed that...

A spectacularly exposed slump is described from a 120-m-long road cut between the villages of Kanod and Deva in the northeastern Jaisalmer Basin of Rajasthan, India. The Upper Jurassic part of the sediments at the outcrop was formed in a near-shore setting and belongs to the Ludharwa Member of the Baisakhi Formation. The 3-m-thick unit shows a numb...

The Jurassic succession of Gangta Bet in the Kachchh basin of western India comprises around 130 m of mostly siliciclastic rocks. The strata belong to the Gangta Member of the Gadhada Formation and are herein sub-divided into four units: the Gangta sandstone beds, the lower silty sandstone beds, the upper silty sandstone beds, and the Gangta ammoni...

Twenty taxa of ammonites, represented by 53 specimens, are described from three sections of the highly ferruginous Umia Ammonite Beds of western Kachchh, Gujarat. The ammonites are representatives of the families Phylloceratidae, Haploceratidae, Perisphinctidae, Ataxioceratidae, and Berriasellidae and belong to the genera Ptychophylloceras, Holcoph...

We document two new forms of the bennetitalean genus Williamsonia, Williamsonia sp. A and Williamsonia sp. B, along with other fossil flora, such as horsetails and conifers, wood logs, flowers, and seeds (Carpolithes sp.) from the Middle Oxfordian Kanthkot Ammonite Beds (KAB), Washtawa Formation, exposed in the Wagad region of the Kachchh Basin, we...

A 44 cm long trackway from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian of the western Kachchh Basin represents the first evidence of the occurrence of members of the order Xiphosura in the Jurassic of India. The track consists of the imprints of the legs and the tail spine of a 36–44 cm long limulid and can be assigned to the ichnogenus Kouphichnium Nopsca, 1923. I...

The 2-m-thick Wood-Log Bed is a highly ferruginous Middle Oxfordian rock unit exposed in the dry bed of the river Tramau in the Wagad Uplift of the eastern Kachchh Basin, western India, and composed of several layers. The bed contains, at several levels, permineralised conifer wood logs, seeds (Carpolites), cones (Araucarites), leaves (Brachyphyllu...

Two gymnospermous fossil woods Araucarioxylon wagadensis n. sp. and Podocarpoxylon gangtaensis n. sp. have been described for the first time from the younger part of the Gadhada formation exposed around the core of the central dome of the Gangta Bet. The ammonites recorded from the Gangta Bet by earlier workers suggest that these fossil woods come...

Late Bathonian-Oxfordian marine rocks exposed west of the village Kuldhar in the Jaisalmer Basin (western India) have yielded several time-diagnostic ammonites of the families Oppeliidae, Sphaeroceratidae, Reineckeiidae, and Perisphinctidae. The paper contains taxonomic details and illustrations of 16 taxa. Records of ammonites by earlier workers a...

An integrated study based on calcareous nannofossils, organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts, and ammonites from the Washtawa and Kanthkot formations of the Wagad Uplift have allowed a detailed documentation of the stratigraphic position of these formations within the Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian sediments of the Kachchh Basin, western India. The nannof...

Members of the family Aspidoceratidae Zittel, 1895 dominate the ammonite assemblage of the Upper Callovian of the Kachchh Basin. With the appearance of the genus Perisphinctes Waagen, 1869 in the Early Oxfordian they lose their dominance, but still form a relatively diverse group. In the present study, 32 ammonites from the Kachchh Basin in western...

Abstract. Members of the family Aspidoceratidae Zittel, 1895 dominate the ammonite assemblage of the Upper Callovian of the Kachchh Basin. With the appearance of the genus Perisphinctes Waagen, 1869 in the Early Oxfordian they lose their dominance, but still form a relatively diverse group. In the present study, 32 ammonites from the Kachchh Basin...

Two dinosaur footprints: Eubrontes cf. giganteus and Grallator tenuis, both attributed to theropods, have been found in the Lower Jurassic Thaiat Member of the Lathi Formation at the Thaiat ridge, near Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan, India. The footprints were left in sediments of a tidal origin, located in profile a few meters above a marked trans...

A collection of 100 ammonites of the subfamily Mayaitinae Spath, 1928 (Sphaeroceratidae, Stephanocerataceae) from the Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) of the Kachchh Basin, Western India, represents 19 morphospecies. Their study confirms most of the species originally described from the Kachchh Basin more than 80 years ago, but it strongly extends the kn...

The Oxfordian to Tithonian sediments deposited along the southern Tethyan margin exhibit very diverse sedimentary facies. The Jaisalmer Basin, situated along the northwestern margin of the Indian peninsula, is a good example of those preserving these sediments (Baisakhi Formation). The scattered nature of the outcrops, due to peneplanation and dese...

Early-Middle Albian calcareous nannofossil assemblage comprising 55 species has been recovered from the Pariwar Formation, Jaisalmer Basin, western India. The nannofossils are moderate to well-preserved and are calibrated with Early-Middle nannofossil zones CC7-CC8 of Albian age. The present record of nannofossils indicates a marine depositional en...

A collection of 93 Late Jurassic gastropods from the Kachchh Basin in western India represents 23 species. The material contains new records, such as Purpurina sp., as well as five new species: Bathrotomaria densireticulata, Bathrotomaria depressa, Bathrotomaria gangtaensis, Neritopsis indica, and Eucyclus tramauensis. Additional unnamed species oc...

Gangta Bet, an islet situated in the salt marshes of the Great Rann of Kachchh, western India, is composed of Jurassic strata containing a rich fauna of Upper Oxfordian ammonites which are very rare in other parts of the Kachchh Basin. A detailed bed-by-bed collection yielded 148 ammonites belonging to 21 taxa which are briefly described and illust...

Several new specimens of ammonites from the Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian of Kachchh, western India, are described and illustrated. The Oxfordian ammonites ?Subdiscosphinctes Malinowska, Perisphinctes Waagen, Dichotomoceras Buckman, and ?Larcheria Tintant, all from Bharodia in the Wagad Uplift, enable tentative biochronostratigraphic correlations with...

Based on bio and lithofacies characteristics and occurrences of hardground surfaces, oolites, iron crusts and shell lags, the Dhosa Oolite member (DOM) of Kachchh basin, India is considered to be equivalent of Fe-oolitic deposits of many European sections that formed during the Callovian-Oxfordian eustatic sea-level maximum. Lithofacies and textura...

A high-resolution stable isotope (δ18O, δ13C) analysis of a specimen of the oyster Actinostreon marshi (J. Sowerby, 1814) from the Lower Oxfordian of the Kachchh Basin in western India was used to reconstruct average seasonal temperatures over a consecutive time interval of 10 years. The recorded temperatures during this period varied around a mean...

In large parts of the Kachchh Basin, a Mesozoic rift basin situated in western India, the Oxfordian succession is characterized by strong condensation and several depositional gaps. The top layer of the Early to Middle Oxfordian Dhosa Oolite member, for which the term ‘Dhosa Conglomerate Bed’ is proposed, is an excellent marker horizon. Despite bei...

The majority of ammonites occurring in the Oxfordian rocks of the Kachchh Basin in western India belong to the genus Perisphinctes Waagen, 1869. Although these ammonites are closely related and share an overall similar morphology, they can be divided into several morphospecies based, for example, on their proportional dimensions, whorl section, and...

The study combines the results of stable isotope (δ13C, δ18O) analyses of 187 belemnites, brachiopods, and oysters from the Middle to Upper Jurassic (Upper Callovian to Kimmeridgian) of the Kachchh Basin in western India. Generally, belemnites show lower δ13C and higher δ18O ratios than the benthic fauna. It is proposed that this discrepancy is cau...

The Quaternary sediments of the Aramda Reef Member of the Chaya Formation exposed in the Mojap coast near Mithapur, Gujarat are characterized by well-developed coralline algal build-ups. These algal build-ups are exceptionally rich in coralline algae and corals. In the present paper, thirteen species belonging to eight genera of coralline algae are...

The Upper Callovian-Oxfordian strata of the Kachchh Basin, western India, record three positive excursions of phosphorus. They have been documented in three sections of the Chari Formation from different parts of the basin. Corroboration of field and petrographic data with trends of major and trace elemental data and elemental ratios of the strata...

Stable isotope analyses of 61 diagenetically unaltered belemnite rostra from the Middle to Late Jurassic of the Kachchh Basin of western India suggest stable paleotemperatures across the Callovian-Oxfordian boundary (~14°C). Only at the end of the Middle Oxfordian water temperatures drop for more than 3°C before reaching again higher values during...

Forty-three ammonites from the Kachchh Basin in western India have been assigned to seven taxa belonging to the genus Peltoceratoides Spath, 1924. The two most abundant morphospecies Peltoceratoides (Peltoceratoides) constantii and Peltoceratoides (Parawedekindia) arduennensis are commonly considered as the macro- and microconch, respectively of a...

ABSTRACT Aspidiscus cristatus (Lamarck) has been described and illustrated from three coral-bearing horizons of the Cenomanian sedimentary succession of Wadi Quseib, East Sinai, Egypt. The new specimens show well-preserved internal microarchitectures, which corroborate its assignment to family Latomeandridae Alloiteau, 1952. The stratigraphic range...

We present the first modern description of corals, brachiopods and bivalves from the Antalo Limestone in the Mekele Outlier of northern Ethiopia. This fauna is largely of Oxfordian age and lived in shallow sub-tidal environments and in small patch reefs. In combining our new data with fossil occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, we conduc...

The scleractinian coral genus Favia from the early Pliocene–Holocene sediments and the patch reefs in intertidal lagoon along the northern and northwestern coastal areas of Saurashtra peninsula, western India is represented by three morphospecies, viz. Favia favus, Favia speciosa and Favia matthaii. These species have been found intricately related...

The asteroid genus Advenaster Hess, 1955 is being recorded and described for the first time from the Indian subcontinent. The specimen has been collected from limestone beds of the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Patcham Formation exposed in a deep gorge in the centre of the Habo Dome, south of the village Dhrang, Kachchh, India.

The Kachchh Basin and the Jaisalmer Basin are two neighboring Mesozoic sedimentary basins at the western margin of the Indian craton. The Jurassic succession of the Kachchh Basin is more complete and more fossiliferous than that of the Jaisalmer Basin. Consequently, intrabasinal correlation of the sedimentary units has been possible in the Kachchh...

The lithostratigraphy, depositional environment and age of the Marwar Supergroup have been reviewed in the light of report of δ13C depletion recorded in the carbonates of the Bilara Group (middle part of Marwar Supergroup) and discovery of trilobite-like trace fossils from the ·Red bedsŽ of Nagaur Group (upper part of Marwar Supergroup). The δ13C d...

The first comprehensive taxonomic description of Jurassic corals from the Jaisalmer Basin, a pericratonic shelf basin on the northwestern slope of the Indian peninsular shield, is based on 75 specimens, which belong to five suborders, seven families, nine genera, and ten species. In Upper Bajocian rocks, all corals belong to the suborder Faviina, i...

The Kachchh Basin is a pericratonic rift basin situated at the western margin of the Indian plate. The Jumara Dome is one of the important exposures of Bathonian sediments among the Kachchh Mainland exposures. A rigorous facies analysis using the microfacies approach for the reconstruction of the depositional environment and setting of carbonate se...

A new section through parts of the Middle Aptian to Early Albian Sanganeh Formation at the southwestern margin of the Koppeh Dagh, NE-Iran, displays a succession of silty to fine-sandy marls between which limestone boulders and debris layers are intercalated at several levels. These boulders are olistoliths, derived from the edge of a nearby carbon...

Neogene-Quaternary sedimentary basin of Saurashtra along the northwestern coast of India is of great interest for its importance in sea-level and palaeoclimatic studies. Lithostratigraphically, the lithic-units have been grouped into Gaj, Dwarka, Miliolite, Chaya, Katpur and Mahuva Formations in ascending order. Present paper deals with stratigraph...