New chondrichthyan fauna from the Palaeogene deposits of Barmer district, Rajasthan, western India: Age, palaeoenvironment and intercontinental affinities

Abstract Field investigations of the Palaeogene sections exposed in the Barmer district led to the discovery of a new fossiliferous horizon in the Padma Rao Open Cast Bentonitic Clay Quarry. The bentonitic clay sequence of this quarry is considered as representing the upper part of the shale, carbonaceous shale, lignite and bentonitic clay succession of the Akli Formation exposed in the Giral Lignite Mine 3 km to its north. Screen-washing of the sediments from a fossiliferous level within the bentonitic clay of the new site has yielded nine taxa of sharks and batoids: Squatiscyllium nigeriensis White, 1934 , Ginglymostoma sokotoense White, 1934 , Ginglymostomatidae gen. et sp. indet., Brachycarcharias sp., Abdounia recticona Winkler, 1873 , Premontreia (Oxyscyllium) peypouqueti Noubhani et Cappetta, 1997 , Eotorpedo hilgendorfi Jaekel, 1904 , Coupatezia sp. cf. C. danica, and Myliobatidae gen. et sp. indet. The fauna recovered is mainly represented by nearshore shallow marine forms. This fauna is quite different from that of Palaeocene Fatehgarh Formation, the lower Eocene Kapurdi Formation (Barmer basin), the Khuiala Formation (Jaisalmer Basin) and the Cambay Shale (Cambay basin), and favors a late Palaeocene (Thanetian) age for the upper part of the Akli Formation. A nearshore shallow marine palaeoenvironment is favored for the investigated stratigraphic horizon on the basis of the selachian fauna. Majority of the fossil shark species described from the Padma Rao quarry section are known from a number of sites in Africa, western Europe, Asia and southeastern USA, suggesting that free faunal interchanges were possible between the western Tethys and Indo-Madagascan faunal provinces during the late Palaeocene.