Cretaceous-paleocene terrestrial faunas of India: lack of endemism during drifting of the Indian plate

Abstract

Recent paleontological investigations of six sections fringing the Deccan volcanic outcrops of the Indian peninsula indicate that terrestrial faunas during the Cretaceous-Paleocene transition lacked the endemism predicted by geophysical models of an oceanically isolated Indian subcontinent. At the generic and familial level there is a close correspondence between the Cretaceous vertebrates of peninsular India, Africa, and Madagascar. This suggests that a dispersal corridor, consisting of presently submerged aseismic elements (the Mascarene Plateau and the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge), existed between these landmasses about 80 million years ago as India drifted close to eastern Africa.