first multituberculate mammal from India

Mesozoic deposits of the former Gondwanaland are depauperate in early mammals, in general, and multituberculate mammals, in particular. Until now, the oldest multituberculate mammals known from the Gondwanan continents come from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco, NW Africa. Here, we report the presenc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Die Naturwissenschaften 2013-06, Vol.100 (6), p.515-523
Main Authors: Parmar, Varun, Prasad, Guntupalli V. R, Kumar, Deepak
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bicuspid - anatomy & histology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Environment
Fossils
India
Life Sciences
mammals
Mammals - anatomy & histology
Mammals - classification
Original Paper
rocks
Species Specificity
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Summary:Mesozoic deposits of the former Gondwanaland are depauperate in early mammals, in general, and multituberculate mammals, in particular. Until now, the oldest multituberculate mammals known from the Gondwanan continents come from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco, NW Africa. Here, we report the presence of a new multituberculate mammal, Indobaatar zofiae gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower/Middle Jurassic Kota Formation, Pranhita-Godavari valley in peninsular India. This is the first record of a multituberculate from the Mesozoic rocks of India and possibly predates the oldest known multituberculates from Gondwanan continents. The new specimen, representing an upper premolar (P⁴), compares well with the upper premolar morphology of Eobaatariinae multituberculates known from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia, China, England, and Spain. Together with the recent findings of cimolodontan multituberculates from the Early Cretaceous of Australia and Late Cretaceous of South America, the new discovery indicates a wide temporal and spatial distribution for multituberculate mammals in the former Gondwanaland.
ISSN:0028-1042
1432-1904
DOI:10.1007/s00114-013-1047-0