Golet I + II (Permian of India)

Also known as Pranhita–Godavari valley

Where: Andhra Pradesh, India (19.3° N, 79.3° E: paleocoordinates 55.4° S, 43.5° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Tropidostoma - Cistecephalus Assemblage zone, Kundaram Formation (Gondwana Group), Wuchiapingian (259.9 - 254.2 Ma)

• "The dicynodont composition of the Kundaram Formation allows it to be correlated with the Late Permian (Tatarian) Tropidostoma and Cistecephalus Assemblage Zones of the Beaufort Group of South Africa"

•Tropidostoma & Cistecephalus Assemblage Zones are regarded as Wuchiapingian according to correlation chart on p. 240 in Catuneanu et al. (2005, J. African Earth Sci. 43, pp. 211-253)

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: wet floodplain; sandstone and gray, green, white mudstone

• "Fine-grained sediments, chiefly extensive mudstone units were probably deposited in the overbank alluvial plain environments. There are small lenticular channel fill bodies within the floodplain deposits, which probably represent deposits of small second order channels draining the floodplains. A pervasive red colouration suggests that the floodplains were well drained and deposition took place in an oxidising, well-aerated environment (Behrensmeyer and Hook, 1992). [...]

•The dominant red beds of the Pranhita–Godavari valley were formed in oxidising environment with warm, moist climate and seasonal rainfall (Robinson, 1970)."

• "At the fossil localities, the Kundaram Formation (250–400 m) is represented by sandstone–mudstone alternations (in the order of few meters) at the base and followed upwards by an essentially mudstone dominated succession with occasional lenses of sandstone. Another major rock type of this formation is the highly ferruginous shale (ironstone shale), which occurs as thin, flaggy and discontinuous bands inter-layered with sandstone. This ferruginous shale is, however, abundant in the central part of the valley but occurs in minor amount in the present study area.

•The mudstone is the main lithounit of this formation and is variegated in colour. The colour varies from dusky red (5R 3/4) to very dark red (5R 2/6) (Rock-Color Chart Committee, 1980). Other shades of colour such as greyish green (10GY 5/2), very light grey (N8), white (N9), greenish grey (5G 6/1) and very deep reddish purple (5RP2/2) are also common. It is laterally persistent, quite massive and structureless but at places parallel laminations are not uncommon. [...] Some calcareous septarian nodules are found at places, especially in the mudstone unit of one of the fossil localities [...]. Laterally persistent, trough cross-stratified sand bodies in the lower part of the Kundaram Formation exhibit unimodal palaeocurrent direction towards north–northeast and were formed by the lateral migration and avulsion of channels (Ray, 1997)."

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: permineralized

Primary reference: S. Ray and S. Bandyopadhyay. 2003. Late Permian vertebrate community of the Pranhita–Godavari valley, India. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 21(6):643-654 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 80572: authorized by Johannes Mueller, entered by Jana Dummasch on 28.04.2008, edited by Torsten Liebrecht and Richard Butler

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• "Endothiodon outnumbers all the other dicynodonts, while two to four individuals represent the gorgonopsian and captorhinid."
Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Eureptilia - Captorhinidae
Captorhinidae indet.
Captorhinidae indet. Case 1911 eureptile
(no specimen number reported)
Osteichthyes
 Dicynodontia -
Pristerodon mackayi, "Endothiodon uniseries" = Endothiodon bathystoma, Endothiodon mahalanobisi n. sp.
Pristerodon mackayi Huxley 1868 dicynodont
ISI R 209 (no further specimen numbers reported)
"Endothiodon uniseries" = Endothiodon bathystoma Owen dicynodont
ISI R 203, 204, 221, 361/1–2, 363, 364, 362 (specimen numbers are from Ray, 2000)
Endothiodon mahalanobisi n. sp. Ray 2000 dicynodont
ISI R 201 (type), 202, 206, 207, 211–216, 218-220, 340-350, 352, 354-360 (specimen numbers are from Ray, 2000)
 Dicynodontia - Kingoriidae
"Kingoria sp." = Dicynodontoides
"Kingoria sp." = Dicynodontoides Broom 1940 dicynodont
ISI R 217
 Dicynodontia - Cistecephalidae
Sauroscaptor tharavati n. gen. n. sp., Sauroscaptor tharavati
Sauroscaptor tharavati n. gen. n. sp. Kammerer et al. 2016 dicynodont
ISI R 210 (type specimen)
Sauroscaptor tharavati Kammerer et al. 2016 dicynodont
ISI R 208
 Anomodontia - Cryptodontidae
? Oudenodon sp.
? Oudenodon sp. Owen 1859 therapsid
ISI R 205
 Therapsida -
Gorgonopsia indet.
Gorgonopsia indet. Seeley 1894 therapsid
ISI R 228, 228/2, 229