Discovery of the first ichthyosaur from the Jurassic of India: Implications for Gondwanan palaeobiogeography

Guntupalli V R Prasad; Dhirendra K Pandey; Matthias Alberti; Franz T Fürsich; Mahesh G Thakkar; Gaurav D Chauhan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0185851

Discovery of the first ichthyosaur from the Jurassic of India: Implications for Gondwanan palaeobiogeography

PLoS One. 2017 Oct 25;12(10):e0185851. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185851. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Guntupalli V R Prasad¹, Dhirendra K Pandey², Matthias Alberti³, Franz T Fürsich⁴, Mahesh G Thakkar⁵, Gaurav D Chauhan⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geology, Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
² Earth and Planetary Sciences Group, Manipal Center for Natural Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
³ Institut für Geowissenschaften, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
⁴ GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
⁵ Department of Earth and Environmental Science, KSKV Kachchh University, Bhuj, India.

Abstract

An articulated and partially preserved skeleton of an ichthyosaur was found in the Upper Jurassic (Upper Kimmeridgian) Katrol Formation exposed at a site south of the village Lodai in Kachchh district, Gujarat (western India). Here we present a detailed description and inferred taxonomic relationship of the specimen. The present study revealed that the articulated skeleton belongs to the family Ophthalmosauridae. The new discovery from India further improves the depauperate fossil record of ichthyosaurs from the former Gondwanan continents. Based on the preserved length of the axial skeleton and anterior part of the snout and taking into account the missing parts of the skull and postflexural region, it is suggested that the specimen may represent an adult possibly reaching a length of 5.0-5.5 m. The widespread occurrence of ophthalmosaurids in the Upper Jurassic deposits of western Tethys, Madagascar, South America and India points to possible faunal exchanges between the western Tethys and Gondwanan continents through a southern seaway.

MeSH terms

Animals
Dinosaurs*
Fossils*
India
Paleontology*

Grants and funding

GVRP acknowledges research grant from J.C.Bose National Fellowship (Grant No.SR/S2/JCB-14/2010) of the Science and Engineering Research (SERB), New Delhi for this work. MA greatly acknowledges financial support by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.