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The first multituberculate mammal from India

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgments

VP is thankful to the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi for funding a Fast Track project (SR/FTP/ES-46/2009) for this work. GVRP acknowledges the research grants from DST, New Delhi in the form of JC Bose National Fellowship. This work forms part of UGC SAP and DST FIST program of Jammu University and UGC CAS II program of Delhi University (DU). Dr N. C. Mehra and R. K. Priyadarshini of the Department of Geology, DU are thanked for taking SEM photographs and for help during the making of figures, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu, 180006, India

    Varun Parmar & Deepak Kumar

  2. Department of Geology, Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Guntupalli V. R. Prasad

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  1. Varun Parmar
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  2. Guntupalli V. R. Prasad
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  3. Deepak Kumar
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Correspondence to Guntupalli V. R. Prasad.

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Communicated by: Robert Asher

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Parmar, V., Prasad, G.V.R. & Kumar, D. The first multituberculate mammal from India. Naturwissenschaften 100, 515–523 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1047-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1047-0

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