Vivesh V Kapur

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences · Mesozoic-Cenozoic Laboratory

Based on well-preserved lower dentition, a new adapisoriculid from the Cambay Shale Formation (basal Eocene, ∼54.5 Ma) in the open cast lignite mine of Vastan, Gujarat State, western India, is described. Indolestes kalamensis gen. et sp. nov adds significantly to the diversity of basal eutherians from Vastan as it represents a family hitherto not k...

The present article aims to record a recently discovered middle Miocene vertebrate assemblage (including marine and terrestrial mammals) from Palasava, Kutch (Kachchh) District, Gujarat State, western India. The faunal assemblage comprising fishes, chelonians, crocodiles, snakes, birds and mammals is significant in terms of palaeoecology, palaeoenv...

The present study is an attempt to utilize cenogram methodology (both qualitative and quantitative) to consider mammalian communities from five early to late Eocene localities across the globe (i.e., Polecat Bench, Bighorn Basin, North America; Abbey Wood, Blackheath Formation, UK; Cambay Shale, Cambay Basin, India; Wutu Formation, Wutu Basin, Chin...

The concept of habitability has evolved significantly over the past few decades, driven by increased knowledge of microbial life in extreme environments on Earth. When assessing a planet's potential to support life, researchers urgently need to develop techniques capable of identifying and differentiating false biosignatures within geological matri...

Cretaceous-Paleogene coprolite (fossilized faecal matter) records are significant in terms of providing direct palaeobiological evidence (from inclusions) in order to understand the diet of producer animal(s). In the past >150 years, research investigations (in India) have focused on the Maastrichtian Type-A coprolite morphotype. Consequently, litt...

We record the first occurrence of a microcoprolite assemblage from the Upper Triassic Tiki Formation, Son –Mahanadi Basin, India. The microcoprolite assemblage has been assigned to four new ichnotaxa namely Cylindrocopros gondwanensis igen. et isp. nov., Elliptocopros rewaensis igen. et isp. nov., Convolucopros shadolensis igen. et isp. nov., and C...

This article aims to present an overview of the Paleogene vertebrate faunal records, especially mammals, with an emphasis on research conducted within the last 5 years i.e., from 2019 to 2023. Recent developments highlight the significance of vertebrate fossil records (particularly that of mammals) in our understanding of the origin, evolution, and...

United Nations protection programmes under the UNESCO's Global Geopark initiatives have resulted in the establishment and recognition of 195 Global Geoparks in 48 countries to sustainably protect Geoheritage. Given an inclusive approach with local communities and the geoscientific communities as stakeholders, the UNESCO Global Geopark concept has g...

The hot springs are known to host a variety of organisms, such as Cyanobacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes. The growth and survival of these life forms in extreme environments, where spring water temperature and associated minerals play a significant role, provide analogous conditions like Mars and thus attract researchers to find the possible existe...

The rich geodiversity of India requires protection and conservation for ongoing, future scientific endeavours and for the public to cherish. In this regard, various central- and state-level governmental organisations and academic and research institutions are making concerted efforts whilst constantly deliberating to establish a state-of-the-art ‘T...

The climatic evolution of the Neogene, with long-term cooling disrupted by the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO; ~17–14.75 Ma), arises as a suitable baseline to analyze the effects of these transcendent climatic changes on the mammalian community structures. The present investigation is an attempt to examine the palaeohabitat of a Neogene (Mid...

The carbonaceous shale of the Miocene (late Burdigalian) Quilon Formation (Kerala Basin, southwest India) were collected and processed to retrieve the microfaunal component. In the present study, the oxygen isotope analysis of the growth bands of the recovered bivalves Pitar (Hyphantosoma) simonnei and Ostrea sp. (both retrieved from the Quilon For...

The oldest Asian record of alpheid shrimps (assigned to genus Alpheus) based on snapping claw fingertips from the Miocene (Aquitanian) Khari Nadi Formation (Kutch Basin, western India) reported herein extends the fossil record of Alpheidae from Asia by ~22 million years. An early Miocene (Aquitanian) age is estimated, based on the associated assemb...

In recent years, a series of discoveries of a diverse early Eocene (~54.5 Ma) terrestrial mammal fauna from the open-cast lignite mines of western India (District Surat, Gujarat) have attracted global attention. The principal early Eocene mammal-bearing horizon in India occurs in the Cambay Shale, and is sandwiched between the two main hyperthermal...

Carbonate clumped isotope thermometry is based on the ordering of ¹³C and ¹⁸O in the carbonate lattice and is based on the relative abundance of ¹³C¹⁸O¹⁶O in CO2 produced through acid digestion of carbonate minerals. The major advantage of this technique is its non‐dependency on the δ¹⁸O value of water from which the carbonate precipitated. Ghosh e...

Ladakh region (Trans-Himalaya) is strategically placed as far as movement, demographic shifts and rich multicultural heritage is concerned owing to being a meeting point between Central Asia and South Asia i.e., utilization of the world famous “Silk Route” during the last two millennia. Further, the Ladakh region has in the past decade gained atten...

Within the Indian subcontinent, the oldest Cenozoic record of non-volant mammals comprises various groups including perissodactyls, artiodactyls, primates, lagomorphs, tillodonts, proteutherians, rodents and didelphimorphs. These mammals have been reported from the subsurface horizons of the Cambay Shale which are dated at ~54.5 Ma (Early Eocene)....

Bestowed with the legacy of Prof. Birbal Sahni for deciphering the evolutionary history of Kingdom Plantae through the study of plant fossils, the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), erstwhile Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany has grown manifold in the fields of the evolutionary history of plants, palaeoclimate, and palaeoecology....

This paper reviews research on coprolites from India, and also provides the first evidence of microcoprolites from the early Miocene (Aquitanian) Khari Nadi Formation sedimentary succession exposed about 1.5 km northeast of the village of Kotada, Kachchh (Kutch) District, Gujarat State, western India. Morphometric and size comparisons (in a statist...

The sedimentary sequences associated with the Deccan Flood Basalts, i.e., infratrappean and intertrappean deposits, are known to yield a diverse assemblage of fauna that includes foraminiferans, ostracods, molluscs, fishes, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, and mammals. The existing literature debates the exact nature of origi...

An assemblage of microfossils consisting of non-marine ostracods (Cypridopsis, Gomphocythere, Zonocypris, Eucypris, and Frambocythere), charophyte gyrogonites (Platychara), molluscs (Viviparus, Valvata, and Lymnaea), and fish remains (mainly Phareodus), is here reported from a new intertrappean locality near the town of Manawar, District Dhar, Madh...

The monsoonal paleoclimate of India has been critical for understanding the tectonic history of Himalayan and Tibetan uplift over the past 60 My. Monsoonal circulation in deep time has been inferred from variation in stable isotopes of tooth enamel, diatom blooms, and dust influx in the Indian Ocean and the advent of C4 grasses, but these proxies a...

This study presents new results of combined palynological and stable carbon isotope (δ¹³C) investigations carried out in the well known lignite sequence at Panandhro, District Kutch, in the Gujarat state of western India. Dinoflagellate cysts and associated spore-pollen assemblage assign an early Eocene (Ypresian) age to the lignitic succession at...

The biogeographic affinities of the Indian plate during its northward movement are at present intensely debated, especially in the context of strong geophysical evidence pointing towards an isolated Indian Subcontinent during the Late Cretaceous (~90 to ~65 Ma). It is difficult to conceive of the possibility of a direct land route for the exchange...

A new tapiromorph perissodactyl (Cambaylophus vastanensis gen. et sp. nov.) from the basal Eocene (~54–55 Ma) Cambay Shale Formation, Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, western India, is described for the first time. The new taxon, which represents the earliest known tapiromorph from South Asia and the second perissodactyl group in the Vastan mammal fau...

Geological records of early Paleogene warming are rare in low latitudinal regions. The Indian subcontinent preserves records of this global event on western and eastern margins. We attempt to decipher paleoenvironmental setup and facies architecture of the paleo-equatorial early Eocene succession at the Vastan Lignite Mine, Gulf of Cambay, western...

This paper describes two new mammalian taxa from the basal Eocene Cambay Shale deposits of the Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, western India. One of these, a hyaenodontid creodont, pertains to a new taxon based on several dentaries (Indohyaenodon raoi n. gen. & n. sp.), and the other is an unnamed condylarth, possibly an arctocyonid, with a tribosphe...

Discoveries of three species of Eocene sirenians in District Kachchh, State of Gujarat, India, are reported. A species of the protosirenid Protosiren is represented by cranial and postcranial material, and the halitheriine dugongid Eosiren is represented by a poorly preserved mandible. Neither of these can be identified at the specific level. A new...

Undisputed anthropoids appear in the fossil record of Africa and Asia by the middle Eocene, about 45 Ma. Here, we report the discovery of an early Eocene eosimiid anthropoid primate from India, named Anthrasimias, that extends the Asian fossil record of anthropoids by 9-10 million years. A phylogenetic analysis of 75 taxa and 343 characters of the...

A new collection of cambaytheres (Perissodactyla: Mammalia) from the early Eocene (Ypresian, ca. 52 Ma) deposits at the Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, is described. The collection comprises both lower and upper dentitions, postcranials, and the rostrum of a new taxon (Kalitherium marinus n. gen. and n. sp.) from a higher stratigraphic level in the V...

We report the discovery of fossil marsupials (Didelphidae: Mammalia) from India, based on well-preserved lower molars of two taxa (Indodelphis luoi n. gen. and n. sp. and Jaegeria cambayensis n. gen. and n. sp.) from the early Eocene (middle Ypresian, approximately 52 Ma) deposits of Vastan Lignite Mine, District Surat, Gujarat, western India. Thes...

Sauropod remains are recorded for the first time from the lower and upper parts of the late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) Nimar Sandstone representing fresh water and intertidal environments of deposition respectively. The Nimar sandstone is the lowermost member of the Bagh beds of district Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. The material includes limb elemen...