Ichthyofauna of the Lower Triassic Panchet Formation, Damodar valley basin, West Bengal, and its implications

摘要

A diverse and abundant freshwater ichthyofauna has been recorded from the Lower Triassic Panchet Formation of Damodar valley basin, West Bengal. It is represented by numerous scales, teeth and tooth plates assigned to actinopterygian and dipnoi fishes and chondrichthyan shark, the latter being an important addition to the known global record of freshwater shark in the Lower Triassic. Some of the actinopterygian fish scales are comparable with those of the Arcadia Formation of Australia which is considered as older than the Lower Burgersdrop Formation of South Africa. This substantiates correlation of the Panchet Formation with the globally recognised Lootsbergian Land Vertebrate Faunachron. The new finds from the Panchet Formation refute the contention that the Lower Triassic freshwater actinopterygian fishes were endemic and support the view that the Gondwana landmasses were connected during the Lower Triassic.