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Early Permian macroinvertebrate assemblages from the Siang and Subansiri districts, Arunachal Pradesh: Implications on the regional stratigraphy, palaeoenvironment, palaeoecology, and palaeobiogeography

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Abstract

The Early Permian marine strata exposed at the Siang and Subansiri districts, Arunachal Pradesh are known for brachiopod and molluscan fossils. A stratigraphic review and palaeoenvironmental, palaeoecological, and palaeobiogeographic interpretation of these Early Permian fossils have been dealt here on the basis of additional fossil and rock materials. Our study confirms the following: (1) the brachiopod-dominated assemblage represents Early Permian, most likely the Sakmarian and younger, age; (2) all marine fossils were suspension feeding groups, representing normal marine condition. Based on the associated sediments and ecologies of taxa, the autecology of the assemblage represents an oxic, soft substrate condition, typical of shallow shelf environment; the plant remains of the upper Khelong/Bhareli Formation, however, indicate a coastal environment; (3) the depositional paleoenvironment indicates the waning phase of a marine glacial episode; and (4) this Early Permian bivalve-brachiopod assemblage show Gondwanan affinity, having strong faunal similarity with the East and West Australia, Nepal and North India (Kashmir) which were part of the Indoralian Province.

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Acknowledgements

The study is part of the GSI FSP 2016–2018 RP/CHQ/M-IV/2016/99 in collaboration with the University of Calcutta and the authors would like to thank the Director General GSI for granting permission to carry out the work. Sabyasachi Shome, GSI is also thanked for his advice and support during fieldwork. The Map and Cartography Division, North East Region Shillong, is also gratefully acknowledged for the help in the preparation of the map of the study area. SM would like to acknowledge University of Calcutta for infrastructural facility and partial funding from the RGT 2017 grant. Deepjay Sarkar helped in photography. Comments and suggestions from the Journal Editor and two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged.

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  1. Subhronil Mondal

    Present address: Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, Mohanpur, West Bengal, 741 246, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Calcutta, 35, B.C. Road, Kolkata, 700 019, India

    Subhronil Mondal & Subhajit Sinha

  2. Palaeontology Division, Geological Survey of India, North Eastern Region, Meghalaya, Shillong, 793 014, India

    Debahuti Mukherjee & Bashisha Iangrai

  3. Palaeontology Division, Geological Survey of India, Central Headquarters, 15 A and B Kyd Street, Kolkata, 700 016, India

    Arindam Roy

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  1. Subhronil Mondal
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  2. Debahuti Mukherjee
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  3. Bashisha Iangrai
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  4. Arindam Roy
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  5. Subhajit Sinha
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Contributions

SM and DM identified the problem and designed the study; DM, SM, BI, and AR conducted fieldwork and collected specimens; SS and SM performed the lithological analyses; SM and DM performed all analyses and interpreted data; SM and DM wrote the manuscript with input from others.

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Correspondence to Subhronil Mondal.

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Communicated by Pratul K Saraswati

Supplementary material pertaining to this article is available on the Journal of Earth System Science website (http://www.ias.ac.in/Journals/Journal_of_Earth_System_Science)

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Appendix

Appendix

Table A1 List of macroinvertebrate taxa found in the Early Permian rocks of Arunachal Pradesh. Global chronostratigraphic ranges, and local stratigraphic and geographic distributions of these fossils are also mentioned.
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Mondal, S., Mukherjee, D., Iangrai, B. et al. Early Permian macroinvertebrate assemblages from the Siang and Subansiri districts, Arunachal Pradesh: Implications on the regional stratigraphy, palaeoenvironment, palaeoecology, and palaeobiogeography. J Earth Syst Sci 130, 87 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01569-3

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