A Cretaceous Hoofed Mammal from India
G. V. R. Prasad,1*
O. Verma,1
A. Sahni,2
V. Parmar,1
A. Khosla2
The sedimentary record documenting the northward drift of India (Late Cretaceous to late Early Eocene) has recently provided important clues to the evolution, radiation, and dispersal of mammals. Here, we report a definitive Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) archaic ungulate (Kharmerungulatum vanvaleni genus et species nova) from the Deccan volcano-sedimentary sequences exposed near Kisalpuri village in Central India. This find has important implications for the origin and diversification of early ungulates and raises three possible paleobiogeographic scenarios: (i) Archaic ungulates may have been cosmopolitan in distribution. (ii) Kharmerungulatum might be an immigrant from Western Asia. (iii) Archaic ungulates may have originated in India.
1 Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu 180 006, India.
2 Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160 014, India.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: guntupalli.vrprasad{at}gmail.com
