A Thecamoebian Assemblage from the Manjir Formation (Early Permian) of Northwest Himalaya, India

A fairly well preserved and diverse assemblage of thecamoebians is reported here from the palynological preparations of the Early Permian Manjir Formation. This Formation is in the Chamba Basin of the northwestern Himalaya in Himanchal Pradesh, India. It has been assigned an Early Permian age on the basis of characteristic palynomorphs (Pande et al. , 2004). This study documents for the first time an Early Permian thecamoebian assemblage from the Himalayan region. Morphologically these forms are comparable to the extant thecamoebian genera like Centropyxis, Arcella, Difflugia, Cyclopyxis, Cucurbitella, Amphitrema, Lagenodifflugia and Lesquereusia . This find supports the current hypothesis of minimal evolution in thecamoebian lineages through geologic time.