Early EoceneQuettacyon parachai(Condylarthra) from the Ghazij Formation of Baluchistan (Pakistan): oldest Cenozoic land mammal from south Asia

Early Eocene warming events and the timing of terrestrial faunal exchange between India and Asia

“…and the lower part of the upper Ghazij fauna by at least 500 k.y. Current estimates of the age of the lowermost Ghazij mammal fauna (Clyde et al, 2003;Gingerich et al, 1997) are not of adequate resolution to determine whether it predates the ETM2, but the Vastan mammals may possibly predate this fauna, as suggested by their Sparnacian age based on the microfossil (dinofl agellate) evidence (Garg et al, 2008) and the possibility of an even older age for the identifi ed CIE, which could correspond to the PETM. At the very least, these fossils document a much earlier fi rst appearance of holarctic groups in India than suggested by the fossils from the Ghazij Formation, Pakistan.…”

“…1) and their tectonic and paleogeographic setting ca. 55 Ma (e.g., Gingerich et al, 1997) preclude the possibility that these mammals represent an early connection between southeast Asia and an island arc that may have formed at the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent (Ali and Aitchison, 2008). For this reason, the Vastan mammals provide a minimum estimate of the timing of subaerial contact (ca.…”

“…Prior work on mammalian faunas from the Ghazij Formation in Pakistan (Clyde et al, 2003;Gingerich et al, 1997) suggested that the fi rst appearance of modern orders of mammals (artiodactyls, perissodactyls, primates) on the Indian subcontinent occurred some time between ca. 53.3 and 50.0 Ma, based on faunas from two intervals in the upper member of this formation.…”

The Origin of Grass-Dominated Ecosystems

“…The Eocene fauna of Indo-Pakistan has some Holarctic elements but includes cetaceans and primitive proboscideans and is deficient in carnivores (Gingerich et al, 1997). The Neogene fauna of Pakistan is representative of a southern Asian zoogeographic province that extended eastward to Thailand (Ducrocq et al, 1994), at least during its middle Miocene portion, changing through time by the dispersal of taxa into the region from Africa and Eurasia and by evolutionary changes occurring within the region.…”

Tectonic and biogeographic implications of the Ghazij Formation (lower Eocene), Baluchistan Province, Pakistan

“…1). This lithologic setting along with the existence of both marine (turritellids) and terrestrial (mammals and reptiles) fossils suggests a fluvio-deltaic depositional environment on the margin of an emergent land body between India and Asia before final suturing (Gingerich et al 1997). This paleogeographic reconstruction is being tested using several lines of evidence including paleomagnetism, current direction analysis, sandstone provenance, and biogeography.…”