TITLE:
Record of Additional Middle Eocene Vertebrate Remains from the Mikir Hills, NE India: Implications on Paleoenvironment and Paleobiogeography
AUTHORS:
Shantajhara Biswal, Kapesa Lokho, Annie Needham, Ansuya Bhandari, Uma Kant Shukla, Kezhakielie Whiso, Kuldeep Prakash
KEYWORDS:
Eocene, Fish Teeth, Mikir Hills, Paleoenvironment, Ray, Sylhet Limestone
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.13 No.8,
August
9,
2022
ABSTRACT: The fossiliferous middle Eocene deposits of Sylhet Limestone
of Mikir Hills have yielded vertebrate and invertebrate faunas. The fossil
assemblages recorded in this contribution consist of shark, ray, crocodile, conical tooth, broken fragments and echinoderm spines. Ray and
crocodile tooth are reporting for the first time from the Mikir Hills.
Paleoenvironmental analysis based on the fossil fish assemblage in association
with invertebrate (foraminifera) remains
and sedimentogical observations suggest a shallow marine environment ranging from open marine, inner neritic to more
proximal coastal settings. Also, the presence of common marine elements
(similar faunas) from Kutch, Rajasthan,
Himachal Pradesh, Assam (India), New Hampshire, Libya, Iraq, Iran, North
Western Sahara (Algeria), Tanzania (East Africa), Italy, Germany,
Southern North Sea basin (Europe) based on previous published works and the
present finding testifies to the connection of the Tethys Sea during
Lutetian-Bartonian of middle Eocene.