My Work

Gondwana Field Excavations

In India, Triassic terrestrial deposits, are found in four major Gondwana basins viz. Pranhita – Godavari (P-G) basin, Satpura basin, Son- Mahanadi (Rewa) basin and Damodar basin. These preserve continuous succession of continental Triassic which are extremely rare worldwide except for few places like the Saar – Nahe Basin of South-West Germany
The Four major Gondwana Basins in India

Early Triassic Panchet Formation is significantly important as the Permo-Triassic Boundary line (PTB) passes through it. The PTB is perceived to be the largest mass extinction in time (Lucas 2009) with loss of nearly 80% of marine invertebrate fauna (Benton and Twitchett 2003). Lithologically, this formation is composed of trough cross-stratified, multi-storeyed sandstones with occasional pebble beds and red to green silt/mudstones.The Panchet Formation has long yielded many vertebrate fossils which include fish scales, cynodonts, dicynodonts and vast bulk of temnospondyl fragments which is supposed to be new fauna after PTB.

Excavation in the Early Triassic Panchet Sandstones
Fossilized temnospondyl (extinct amphibian) excavated from Early Triassic Panchet Formation.
The Middle Triassic is well exposed in the Denwa Formation of the Satpura Basin. The Denwa Formation overlain by Bagra, is only exposed in pockets along NE-SW trending fault lines. The Lower Denwa is characterized by coarse to medium grained trough cross-stratified and rippled sandstone. The Middle Denwa is dominated by violet mudstone, cross stratified IHS and fine sandstone. Rizocretions are present in violet mudstones.

The Late Triassic is represented by Maleri Formation of Pranhita-Godavari basin and Tiki Formation of Damodar basin.Individual calcirudite mounds with alternating sandstone and mudstone units are the characteristics of the Maleri Formation.

Late Triassic succession is also present inTiki Formation of Rewa Basin. Mukherjee et al.2012 made comprehensive study of the basin. Metoposaurids are the only temnospondyl fauna reported so far from Rewa Formation (Sengupta 1992). Present study indicates metoposaurids from Tiki Formation to be Panthasaurus maleriensis

Excavation at the Middle Triassic Denwa Formation of Central India with Prof. Dhurjati Prasad Sengupta
Excavating huge fossil of Scapula from the Late Triassic Maleri Formation with Prof. Dhurjati Prasad Sengupta
Mapping the Late Triassic Mudstone Units of the Gondwana