Palaeobiogeographical Implications of Late Cretaceous-Early Palaeocene Microbiota from the Deccan Intertrappean Beds of the Chhindwara District, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

The charophyte assemblages of the Jhilmili and Ghat Parasia area in Central India exhibit strong relationships or affinities with Late Cretaceous charophyte assemblages from different continents, for instance, Asia, Americas, Europe and Africa, both generically and specifically, and support some palaeobiogeographic inferences. Chara is a rare Asian-affinity charophyte genus, and its presence in India favours dispersal events from Asia to India near the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary. According to the Jhilmili charophytes, the genera Chara, Nemegtichara, Peckichara and Platychara disseminated from Laurasia to India through a sweepstakes dispersal route via the Kohistan-Dras volcanic island-arc system. Cypridopsis, Eucypris and Gomphocythere are thought to be Indian dominant ostracod genera. Gomphocythere is thought to have migrated “Out-of-India” to North China, Africa and Alaska with nine species previously known from India. There are eleven species of Eucypris known from Indian Upper Cretaceous deposits, which may have originated in India and then spread to Mongolia, China and Europe. The presence of planktic foraminiferans and two brackish water ostracod genera Buntonia and Neocyprideis in Jhilmili suggests that during the Cretaceous-Palaeogene interval, shallow marine waters from the Bay of Bengal penetrated into the continental interior region of Central India via the Pranhita-Godavari rift systems or the Narmada-Tapti rift systems from the Arabian Sea.