Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Non-Marine Ostracod Fauna from Khar, a New Intertrappean Locality, Khargaon District, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

This paper records the occurrence of 12 non-marine ostracod species belonging to nine genera from a new intertrappean section located at Khar in Madhya Pradesh, Central India. These are: Frambocythere tumiensis anjarensis, Gomphocythere akalypton, G. paucisulcatus, G. strangulata, Paracypretta jonesi, Stenocypris cylindrica, Zonocypris gujaratensis, Cypridopsis hyperectyphos, Eucypris intervolcanus, E. pelasgicos, Cyclocypris amphibolos and Cypria cyrtonidion. All these are assigned to previously known species from the Upper Cretaceous Lameta Group and Deccan intertrappean beds of central and western Peninsular India. The present ostracod assemblage favours a Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age for the intertrappean beds of Khar and also indicates the existence of a permanent freshwater, lacustrine body during the deposition of these intertrappean beds. The lack of marine fossils in the intertrappean beds of the Narmada rift valley does not attest to any marine incursion along the Narmada rift valley, at least in the latest Cretaceous.