Rajeev Patnaik

• Ph.D
• Professor at Panjab University

The Miocene deposits of India are well known for yielding a diverse assemblage of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils. However, research on Miocene elasmobranch fauna of India is limited to a few Miocene sites and the previously reported species also need to be reviewed, taking into consideration their significance on global Miocene palaeobiogeogra...

Elemental concentrations of the siliciclastic sediments from a sedimentary basin provide clues on paleoweathering, paleoclimate, provenance, and tectonic setting of the basin. Records for Permo–Triassic mass extinction and climatic fluctuations are commonly traced from the sediments in the Gondwana basins. Nevertheless, our understanding on sedimen...

The Miocene deposits of India are well known for yielding a diverse assemblage of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils. However, research on Miocene elasmobranch fauna of India is limited to a few Miocene sites and the previously reported species also need to be reviewed, taking into consideration their significance on global Miocene palaeobiogeogra...

Summary: The Panchet Formation of northeastern India preserves an association of dwarf vertebrates (Early Triassic) with a single valid archosauromorph species, the protesosuchid Samsarasuchus pamelae. Two other species of archosauromorphs have been named for this unit: "Ankistrodon indicus" and "Teratosaurus(?) bengalensis." "Ankistrodon indicus",...

Fossils of the endangered sturgeons and peddlefishes are widely distributed. We here report for the first time the presence of one of the extinct osteichthyes genus Cylindracanthus (Liedy 1856a) from the Early Eocene lignite-bearing successions of the Kutch Basin, India. The present well preserved rostrum is characterised by numerous wedge-shaped c...

Fossil crocodylian remains have been documented from India and other parts of South Asia since the mid-19th century, but specimens attributed to several extinct and extant species of Crocodylus have largely been neglected in modern taxonomic treatments. Here, we present a detailed anatomical description of the extinct species Crocodylus palaeindicu...

The ancestors of bamboo rats of south and south-east Asia and those of the root rats of Africa were quite com- mon in the Middle and Late Miocene Siwalik deposits of India and Pakistan. However, their diversity dropped significantly in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. A derived late Pliocene form of the extinct rhizomyine genus Rhizomyides was recogni...

Although there have been a few reports of macromammals from the Siwalik site of Dunera, no micromammals have yet been described. Recently, a diverse micromammal fossil assemblage represented by isolated teeth has been recovered from Dunera. The specimens are identified as a murine similar to Progonomys hussaini (Progonomys cf. hussaini), the ctenod...

Tiki Formation is well known for the presence of rich vertebrate fossil assemblages including archosaurians, cynodonts, xenacanthids, hybodonts and actinopterygians in the Gondwana succession of India. Here, we report indeterminate Sphenodontia and indeterminate Lepidosauromorpha from the Late Triassic Tiki Formation. The presently reported early d...

Paléomammalogie (mammifères de moyenne et grande taille)/Palaeomammalogy (large and mid-sized mammals) Lorenzo Rook (Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze) Paléomammalogie (petits mammifères sauf Euarchontoglires)/Palaeomammalogy. 2022.-Chondrichthyan and osteichthyan fauna from the middle Miocene deposits of Palasava, Kutch, India: implicatio...

The Late Miocene hominid-bearing locality in Haritalyangar, India, has yielded remains of fossil lizards and snakes. The material consists of the following taxa: Varanus and an indeterminate anguimorph, Python, a colubrid and a natricid. These squamates are documented from this region for the first time. A co-existence of Varanus and Python, two ic...

Geochemical study in the siliciclastic sediments of a basin provides an understanding of palaeoclimate, provenance and subsequently, it can be used to reconstruct the palaeo-tectonics and evolution of the basin. Sedimentation in the Gondwana basins, worldwide, generally provides a record of climatic fluctuations and evidences of the Permo-Triassic...

This paper describes the first record of charophyte gyrogonites from the late Miocene (Tortonian; ~ 11-10 Ma) Tapar locality of Kachchh, Gujarat State, western India. The recovered charophyte assemblage is constituted by Chara globularis var. aspera, C. globularis var. globularis, Lychnothamnus cf. sahnii, Lychnothamnus sp. and Nitellopsis sp. In a...

The Miocene ape (Sivapithecus) locality of Tapar in Kutch (Gujarat, India) has yielded a diverse rodent assemblage that includes: a new murine Progonomys prasadi sp. nov., a new gerbilline Myocricetodon gujaratensis sp. nov., a new rhizomyne Kanisamys kutchensis sp. nov. and a new sciurine Tamias gilaharee sp. nov., beside additional remains of Pro...

The Kargil Formation in the region of Ladakh (northern India) is known for its late Oligocene mammal fauna of both large mammals and rodents. New excavation in the area yielded a maxillary fragment of an insectivore with three premolars and two roots of a canine. The fossil record of the insectivores on the Indian subcontinent is as yet scanty. Bas...

The Ladakh Molasse Group is a thick succession of continental clastic rocks consisting of shales, sandstones and conglomerates, which extend from Kargil in the west to Nyoma and Hanle in the east in the Ladakh region. The Ladakh Molasse Group is divided it into three formations; Kargil (170 m), Tarumsa (834 m) and Pashkyum (974 m) (Bhandari et al....

During the last two decades, work carried out in the Eocene lignite sequences of Rajasthan and Gujarat has thrown considerable light on the terrestrial biotas during the drift of India and radically changed concepts regarding how the Indian plate was populated, the issues of cosmopolitanism and endemism, and the nature of the mixed sal-dominated fo...

The fossil record of treeshrews, hedgehogs, and other micromammals from the Lower Siwaliks of India is sparse. Here, we report on a new genus and species of fossil treeshrew, specimens of the hedgehog Galerix , and other micromammals from the middle Miocene (Lower Siwalik) deposits surrounding Ramnagar (Udhampur District, Jammu and Kashmir), at a f...

We here report on the first madtsoiid snake from the late Oligocene of India (the molasse deposits of Ladakh Himalaya). Madtsoiidae is an extinct group of medium sized to gigantic snakes, members of which were mostly distributed across Gondwana.

The Kashmir Valley in northern India preserves a fossiliferous Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary record extending in time almost 5 myr. These fluvio-lacustrine sediments are commonly called the Karewas, and represent an ancient lake system with drainages derived from the Greater Himalayas and Pir Panjal Ranges. Although fossils have been known from this...

The Listriodontinae were a common and widespread group of Suidae (pigs) that lived in an area extending from Portugal to China and to southern Africa. Here, we describe the new species Listriodon dukkar from Pasuda (Gujarat, India). It shares features with Li. pentapotamiae, evolved from it, and is the last representative of this lineage. The Listr...

Rhythmic incremental growth of daily or longer duration is faithfully recorded in the tooth enamel of all the mammals including those of primates. Just a single well preserved fossil primate tooth can yield a variety of invaluable information, ranging from gestation period, age at weaning, age at death, prenatal and postnatal diet, ecology, water i...

The present 3D Dataset contains the 3D models analyzed in Mennecart B., Wazir W.A., Sehgal R.K., Patnaik R., Singh N.P., Kumar N, and Nanda A.C. 2021. New remains of Nalamaeryx (Tragulidae, Mammalia) from the Ladakh Himalaya and their phylogenetical and palaeoenvironmental implications. Historical Biology. https: //doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2021.201...

Fossil snakes are extremely rare in the Indian Neogene records. We report the first record of isolated precloacal vertebrae of a “colubrine” snake from a late Miocene site, Tapar section in Kutch, Gujarat (India). The present specimens differ from the earlier finding of a colubrid from a younger deposit of Labli Member, Utterbaini Formation of Uppe...

Nalameryx savagei is one of the rare mammals found in India during the Oligocene. Five dental remains composed the originally found material, described in 1990. The first phylogenetic hypothesis proposed Nalameryx to be closely related to the basal ruminant Lophiomerycidae. The description of new specimens from the type bed K/7b from the Kargil For...

The Miocene beds of Kutch in India are well known for their mammalian assemblages including an extinct ape Sivapithecus. We here report new amphibian and snake fossils, which have been recovered from two stratigraphic levels: the older Palasava locality which is dated to the middle Miocene (~ 14 Ma), whereas the sediments of younger sites at Tappar...

A new window to the fossil herpetofauna of India: amphibians and snakes from the Miocene localities of Kutch (Gujarat)

The Neogene localities of Kutch in India are famous for its rich assemblages of fossils vertebrates and invertebrate including the well-known record of an extinct ape Sivapithecus. Although, a little is known about the fossil herpetofaunal assemblages except a few fossil snakes. During a recent field in the Neogene of Kutch area, we have recovered...

The Miocene beds of Kutch in India are well known for their mammalian assemblages, including the extinct ape Sivapithecus, but far less is known about the fossil squamates from this area. Although India with its over 800 reptile species is recognized as one of the global biodiversity hotspots, knowledge of past diversity and paleobiogeography of sq...

Enamel as hardest biological tissue remains unaltered for millions of years and is therefore an excellent archive for studies on paleodiet, paleoecology, paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, biomechanical, and evolutionary studies. However, diagenetic alterations can influence such interpretations and therefore we analyzed the microstructure and composi...

Many plant families lack substantive fossil records, limiting our understanding of their origin and evolution. The abundance and preservation potential of pollen through geological time have helped to overcome such limitations and have provided reliable fossils for reconstructing biogeographical history and character evolution in many angiosperm fa...

We report here a diverse assemblage of sharks and batoids representing the genera Carcharhinus, Rhizoprionodon, Galeocerdo, Sphyrna, Myliobatis, Aetobatus, Dasyatis, Pastinachus, Himantura and Pristis from Tapar and Jangadia the two late and early Miocene sites, respectively, of Kutch (Gujarat, India). The shark Rhizoprionodon and batoids, Dasyatis...

Scanning Electron Microscopic studies of fossil teeth of Chondrichthyan fishes comprising of primitive shark Hybodontiformes (Lonchidiidae: Pristrisodus tikiensis), Xenacanthiformes (Xenacanthidae: Mooreodontus indicus and Mooreodontus jaini) were carried out from the Late Triassic Tiki Formation, Madhya Pradesh, India. Samples of neoselachian shar...

In the light of new discoveries, previously known Siwalik murid, rhizomyid and ctenodactylid rodents are revised. Murines that are described and discussed here include Progonomys debruijni, Karnimata darwini and Parapodemus hariensis from the Late Miocene of Haritalyangar and Mus cf. M. pahari and Hadromys sp. from the Pliocene and Early Pleistocen...

The fossil record of ‘lesser apes’ (i.e. hylobatids = gibbons and siamangs) is virtually non-existent before the latest Miocene of East Asia. However, molecular data strongly and consistently suggest that hylobatids should be present by approximately 20 Ma; thus, there are large temporal, geographical, and morphological gaps between early fossil ap...

This study attempted to probe a geologically more stable IR stimulated luminescence signal (IRSL) that explored so far. IRSL, probes the proximal pairs and, pIRSL measurements at elevated temperatures consume more distant pairs. We surmised that the residual IRSL after pIR-IRSL should arise from most distant pairs and hence should be more stable. A...

Deinotheriidae Bonaparte, 1845 is a family of browsing proboscideans that were widespread in the Old World during the Neogene. From Miocene deposits in the Indian subcontinent, deinotheres are known largely from dental remains. Both large and small species have been described from the region. Previously, only small deinothere species have been iden...

Fossil snakes are extremely rare in the Indian Neogene record. We report isolated precloacal vertebrae of a “colubrine” snake from a late Miocene site, Tappar in Kutch, Gujarat (India). This finding represents the first record of a fossil colubrine snake from Tappar, Kutch (India). Earlier, Rage et al. (2001) reported colubrids from the upper Plioc...

Several studies have established that African proboscideans shifted their feeding strategies (browsing vs. grazing) in response to climatic and ecological changes. However, similar studies on their Indian relatives are rare. In this regard, we analysed the stable carbon (d 13 C) and oxygen (d 18 O) isotope composition, hypsodonty indices (HI), and...

The Neogene of Kutch, Gujarat, India is well known for its fossil vertebrate remains. However, almost nothing is known about fresh water fishes from these deposits. A fresh water teleost fish fauna from a late Miocene (~11-10 Ma) locality, Tappar is reported. The present study also emphasizes on the palaeoenvironmental implications of these remains...

A Sivapithecus m3 from Ramnagar is described and the taxonomy of all Sivapithecus specimens from Ramnagar is reviewed.

The eastern state of Odisha, India is well known for its rich microlithic assemblages; over 400 sites have been reported, including some with tools for heavy-duty tasks. However, due to the lack of associated vertebrate fossils from stratified horizons and absolute dates, their antiquity and associated environments are yet to be established. We rep...

The eastern state of Odisha, India is well known for its rich microlithic assemblages; over 400 sites have been reported, including some with tools for heavy-duty tasks. However, due to the lack of associated vertebrate fossils from stratified horizons and absolute dates, their antiquity and associated environments are yet to be established. We rep...

The earliest hippopotamid fossils from the Indian Subcontinent come from the Miocene of the Siwalik Group. South Asian hippopotamidae are represented by the genus Hexaprotodon, and remains of these hippos are commonly found in Neogene and Quaternary sites. Here we report on the first directly dated specimen of Hexaprotodon sp. from the Narmada Vall...

Charophytes represent a group of land plant ancestors living in freshwater or brackish environments. Their calcified fructifications i.e., gyrogonites and utricles, generally fossilize. Fossil gyrogonites have been recovered in non-marine deposits worldwide from the Silurian to the present. Although there are many reports of charophytes from the Ne...

The Tappar beds from the Kutch basin, in western India are known for their rich mammalian and reptilian fossil assemblages. This section is thought to be from the Late Miocene age and consists of sandstone, siltstone and mudstone with intermittent conglomerate beds. During a recent field survey (2017-2018) of the Late Miocene deposits exposed aroun...

Bone accumulation by porcupines at archaeological sites is well known. However, in paleontological sites such a taphonomical occurrence is rather rare. We here report porcupine (Hystrix sp.) gnaw marks on an unidentified bone fragment, dated to ~2.6 Ma from the Upper Siwalik deposits exposed near Khetpurali (Haryana), India. The present gnaw marks...

The Plio-Pleistocene Siwalik deposits around Chandigarh, well known for their great wealth of mammalian fossils, preserve a continuous record of calcareous paleosols ranging in age from ∼2.7 to ∼0.6 Ma. The carbon isotope composition (δ¹³C relative to Vienna Peedee belemnite [VPDB]) of 140 pedogenic carbonates from Ghaggar and Nadah sections and 13...

An M3 of a catarrhine primate was recently recovered from Lower Siwalik deposits (~14-11 Ma) at the site of Sunetar near Ramnagar, India. Preliminary studies have shown that this Hylobates agilis-size tooth is distinct from the M3s of other primates found in the area, including Sivapithecus and Sivaladapis, and broader morphological comparisons ind...

Despite sporadic fieldwork for nearly a century, the Middle Miocene hominoid locality of Ramnagar (Jammu and Kashmir, India) is still not well understood in terms of its taphonomy and paleoecology. Between 2010–2015, we collected a large number of vertebrate, invertebrate and plant fossil remains from seven sites in the Ramnagar area: Bassi, Kulwan...

This paper presents general descriptive and contextual information on newly discovered microlithic scatters in the Sehore and Hoshangabad districts in the central Narmada Basin, Madhya Pradesh. The discussed sites or site complexes include Pilikarar, Budni, Naganpur, Khusmeli Dam, Digamber and Chikli along the northern part of the basin (Vindhyan H...

The natural activity of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K present in soil, fertilizer and palaeosols besides animal fossils was determined using low background gamma ray spectrometry. The highest uranium activity level were found in animal fossils of geogenic origin compared to palaeosols, soils and fertilizers, a result of post-mortem uranium assimilation in th...

We describe a fossil freshwater crab specimen from the Tatrot Formation, Siwalik Group, of Northern India. We assign this specimen on the basis of morphology of the anterolateral margin, which is comparable to the extant species Acanthopotamon martensi (Wood-Mason, 1875) in the Ganges valley. We re-interpret previously described claw fragments from...

New fossils from the latest Pliocene portion of the Tatrot Formation exposed in the Siwalik Hills of northern India represent the first fossil record of a darter (Anhingidae) from India. The darter fossils possibly represent a new species, but the limited information on the fossil record of this group restricts their taxonomic allocation. The Plioc...

In case of freshwater deposits that cannot be isotopically dated or that lack a continuous sequence for magnetostratigraphic study, rodent biochronology is an useful tool in making intra-regional biostratigraphic correlations and dating isolated Siwalik fossil localities within the Himalayan Foreland Basin. We here, report a new fossil locality exp...

Over the past century, numerous vertebrate fossils collected near the town of Ramnagar, India, have proven to be important for understanding the evolution and biogeography of many mammalian groups. Primates from Ramnagar, though rare, include a number of hominoid specimens attributable to Sivapithecus, as well as a single published mandibular fragm...

In 1922, on the advice of prominent geologist and local Superintendent Charles Middlemiss, Barnum Brown began systematic collection of vertebrate fossils from Lower Siwalik deposits surrounding the town of Ramnagar (Jammu and Kashmir), India. Brown immediately discovered a partial jaw belonging to a large hominoid ape and described it as a new spec...

Neogene Climate, Terrestrial Mammals and Flora of the Indian Subcontinent

Although the Late Miocene Baripada Beds are well known for their wealth of fossil vertebrates and invertebrates, very little is known about their palaeoclimatic condition of deposition. Here, we present X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis ofnineteen samples collected from a 14 m thick Baripada Bed Section at Mukurmatia. We have used this XRD result to...

A biostratigraphic evaluation of the Indian subcontinent Neogene–Quaternary mammal genera at 1 Ma intervals reveals a strong correlation between faunal turnovers (first and last appearances and immigrations), diversity and major tectonic and climate-induced sea level and vegetation changes at 23–22, 20–18, 17–16, 15–14, 11–10, 9–8, 3–2 and 1–0 Ma....

The well-known Late Cretaceous Lameta Ghat locality (Jabalpur, India) provides a window of opportunity to study a large stable, near shore sandy beach, which was widely used by sauropod dinosaurs as a hatchery. In this paper, we revisit the eggs and eggshell fragments previously assigned to lizards from this locality and reassign them to crocodylom...

Abstract Fossils, palaeosols and associated sedimentary rock samples from well-dated Siwalik sediments have been measured for their uranium content by low background gamma ray spectrometry with a view to study the role of geo-genic mobilization in enhancing the levels of uranium in ground water bodies of Malwa region in Punjab state, North Western...

This study attempted to probe a geologically more stable IR stimulated luminescence signal (IRSL) that explored so far. IRSL, probes the proximal pairs and, pIRSL measurements at elevated temperatures consume more distant pairs. We surmised that the residual IRSL after pIR-IRSL should arise from most distant pairs and hence should be more stable. A...

a b s t r a c t Late Miocene climate change particularly monsoon intensification brought about by tectonic upheavals changed significantly the regional vegetation scenario of the Indian Subcontinent. Siwalik Middle Miocene closed forests gave way to Late Miocene open and seasonal forests, which in turn were gradually replaced by latest Miocene and...

We report a new fossil specimen of a pelican from the Tatrot Formation of the Siwalik Hills, India. It likely represents Pelecanus sivalensis Davies, 1880, the smaller of the two previously published species from the Siwalik Group stratigraphic sequence. This complete tarsometatarsus is the first fossil bone of a pelican collected in India for over...

This is the first record of fossil otoliths from the Siwalik formation, palaeomagnetically dated to ~2 Ma, exposed near Village Nadah (Haryana, India). The fossil otoliths belong to the Channidae. One otolith is well preserved and is determined as Channa aff. striata (Bloch), whereas the other two specimens are corroded and can only be classified a...

The freshwater Siwalik deposits of the Indian subcontinent, ranging in age from ~18 Ma to ~ .5 Ma, have yielded over 28 murine species belonging to 14 genera, most of them showing an in situ evolution. In the present work, a cladistic analysis (using PAUP) based on 26 derived and generalized dental characters distributed among Siwalik fossil murine...

We present here a list of the vertebrate fauna collected during fieldwork carried out in Kutch between 2010-2011from several early Miocene localities in the Lower Miocene. We describe and comment on fossil remains of fishes (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes), reptiles (tomistomid crocodiles) and mammals (Deinotherium sp., Gomphotheriidae indet. and...

We present dental enamel stable carbon and oxygen isotope data, histological analyses of daily cross striations and perikymata, and microwear data of Late Miocene primates Indopithecus and Sivaladapis nagrii and an early Pleistocene primate Theropithecus delsoni, known from the Indian Siwaliks. The results indicate that the Late Miocene giant ape I...

The �55 km-long Firouzkuh fault is located in the Central Alborz Mountains of Iran. It is a left-lateral fault, which dips to the south, and possesses a small dip-slip component of motion that we interpret to result from extension. The ratio of horizontal to vertical displacement across the fault, calculated from the cumulative displacement of land...

Over the past century, numerous specimens collected near Ramnagar (Jammu and Kashmir Province, India) have proven important in understanding the evolution and biogeography of many mammalian groups, including hominoid apes. The precise geochronology of the Ramnagar-area deposits, however, remains uncertain and is an active topic of research. Since 2...

The highly fossiliferous marine deposits of the Baripada Beds have been assigned ages ranging from Eocene to Pleistocene primarily based on biostratigraphically long-ranging foraminfers, molluscs and selachians. We describe here a short ranging (Late Miocene) suid, Tetraconodon intermedius from these beds for the first time. A detailed comparison a...

The Miocene Baripada Beds of Orissa are well known for their rich assemblages of sharks and batoids. The Batoid assemblages of Baripada Beds are represented by nine genera comprising of Myliobatis, Aetobatus, Rhinoptera, Dasyatis, Raja, Rhinobatus, Rhyncobatus, Pristis and Gymnura. Our record of Rhyncobatus sp. is significant as it is the first suc...

Stable carbon isotope analysis in tooth enamel is a well-established approach to infer C3 and C4 dietary composition in fossil mammals. The bulk of past work has been conducted on large herbivorous mammals. One important finding is that their dietary habits of fossil large mammals track the late Miocene ecological shift from C3 forest and woodland...

Isotope compositions in a sequence of molars from m1 to m3 from three mandibles (#1 to #3) of Recent Rattus sp. (A) δ13C data. (B) δ18O data. Specimens were analyzed in the same analytical run except m1 of #1 and #3, which were run four days after the others. All were right molars except m2 of #2. (PDF)