CARBONATE FACIES IN LATE CRETACEOUS DINOSAURS BEARING LAMETA FORMATION, JABALPUR,CENTRAL INDIA AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR PALEOENVIRONMENT RECONSTRUCTIONS

Since the discovery of the first dinosaur’s fossil, it has not stopped fascinating the geoscientist. The studies focused on the characters of lithological units that preserved dinosaur fossils have got equal attention for paleoclimatic, paleolatitudinal and paleoenvironmental reconstruction.

In that series, we have focused on one of the famous locality of Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils i.e. Lameta Formation exposed at Bara Shimla Hill and Lameta Ghat of Jabalpur (INDIA). Majority of Research studies on Lameta Formation has been restricted to taxonomy and paleobiology with limited focus on the morphology and micromorphology of the lithological units. We have specifically studied these less-studied characters of dinosaur fossil-bearing carbonate facies of Lameta Formation for its paleoclimatic reconstruction. The Global time equivalent strata of this carbonate facies have been studied in Korea, Romania, France, Spain, Argentina, and Mongolia. Lithologically, these dinosaur-bearing global localities have been identified as paleosols by various researchers. Carbonate facies of Lameta Formation is dominantly identified as palustrine limestone and calcrete facies. We have identified a paleosols facies of carbonate based on micromorphological studies. Presence of paleosols indicates a significant break in the sedimentation during the deposition of carbonate facies, which gave sufficient time to the process of soil formation. These are calcareous paleosols, characterized by the presence of various carbonate nodules along-with Fe-Mn oxides. Rhizoconcretions, mottles, infillings, cutans, b-fabrics and other associated features indicate the formation of these paleosols in tropical warm-wet climate under well-drained conditions. Basically, our results focus on developing an understanding of paleoclimatic conditions that prevailed during the late Cretaceous period. It further discusses the habitat of Maastrichtian dinosaurs and paleolatitudinal location of India.