Dinosaur eggshells (Saurischia) from the Late Cretaceous Intertrappean and Lameta formations (Deccan, India)

Megaloolithus Dinosaur Nest from the Lameta Formation of Salbardi Area, Districts Amravati, Maharashtra and Betul, Madhya Pradesh

“…Various schemes of classification for the Indian dinosaurs eggshells have been proposed which are mainly based on general morphology including shape and size, ratio of height to width and microstructures of the eggshells (Jain and Sahni, 1985;Vianey-Liaud et al, 1987;Bajpai et al, 1993;Khosla and Sahni, 1995;Mohabey, 1998;2000). Mohabey (1998Mohabey ( , 2000 has proposed systematics of Indian Maastrichtian dinosaur's eggs and categorized them in two families viz., Megaloolithidae and Elongatoolithidae; which are further subdivided into various oogenera on the basis of shape and microstructures.…”

Palaeobiogeographic significance of the Deccan infra‐ and intertrappean biota from peninsular India

“…This cannot be ascribed to facies change from the infratrappean to intertrappean beds as there is not much difference in the depositional environments of these two sequences. Vianey-Liaud et al (1987) correlated the isolated teeth of Megalosaurus recovered from the intertrappean beds of Nagpur with those of Megalosaurus crenatissimus known from the upper Cretaceous rocks of Madagascar.…”

“…Since a detailed account on the age of infra-and intertrappean beds is given elsewhere (Khajuria et al, in press), only a brief resume of the same is presented here. The infratrappean outcrops have been dated as late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in age based on fishes (Courtillot et al, 1986;Sahni and Tripathi, 1990; (Buffetaut, 1987;Vianey-Liaud et al, 1987) and palynofossils (Dogra et al, 1988(Dogra et al, , 1994, whereas the subsurface infratrappean sections are now considered as late Maastrichtian on the basis of planktonic foraminifers (Raju et al, 1991;Jaiprakash et al, 1993). There is no resolvable difference between the fauna and flora of the infraand intertrappean beds (Asifabad, Naskal, Nagpur, Padwar, Ranipur) exposed on the eastern margin of the Deccan Traps.…”

“…There is no resolvable difference between the fauna and flora of the infraand intertrappean beds (Asifabad, Naskal, Nagpur, Padwar, Ranipur) exposed on the eastern margin of the Deccan Traps. These intertrappean beds have been assigned a latest Cretaceous age on the basis of their slightly younger stratigraphic position in relation to the infratrappean beds, fish fauna (Prasad, 1989;Prasad and Cappetta, 1993), dinosaurs (Rao and Yadagiri, 1981;Vianey-Liaud et al, 1987;Sahni and Bajpai, 1988;Ghevariya, 1988;Prasad, 1989), ostracodes (Bhatia et al, 1990a, c) and palynofossils (Prakash et al, 1990;Mathur and Sharma, 1990). As far as the subsurface intertrappean sections are concerned, Narsapur Well-1 yields a late Maastrichtian foraminiferal assemblage (Govindan, 1981), whereas foraminifers from nearest wells at Palakollu, Elamanchili and Modi favour a slightly younger early Palaeocene age (Raju et al, 1991;Jaiprakash et al, 1993).…”

“…Keeping the affinities of infra-and intertrappean biota in view, an attempt is made here to review various palaeobiogeographic models proposed earlier and to suggest possible dispersal routes. Over the past several years, the infra-(=Lameta) and intertrappean beds exposed along the margins of main Deccan trap province (Figure la) have been extensively studied from palaeontological point of view (Rao and Yadagiri, 1981;Sahni et al, 1982;Jain and Sahni, 1983;Gayet et al, 1984;Vianey-Liaud et al, 1987;Sahni, 1987, 1988;Sahni and Bajpai, 1988;Prasad, 1989;Rana, 1988Rana, , 1990Bhatia et al, 1990a, b, c;Prasad and Rage, 1991;Rage and Prasad, 1992;Srinivasan et al, 1992;Prasad and Cappetta, 1993;Godinot and Prasad, 1994;Prasad and Godinot, 1994). The new palaeontological data forced us to revise the age of infra-and intertrappean beds which were earlier conceived as Turanian (Huene and Matley, 1933;Chiplonker, 1986) and late Cretaceous to early Oligocene (Hislop, 1860;Sahni, 1934;Hora, 1938;Bhatia and Mannikeri, 1976;Shivarudrappa, 1977;Bande et al, 1986) in age, respectively.…”