Leaving Gondwana : the changing position of the Indian
subcontinent in the Global Faunal Network

Halliday, TJD; Holroyd, PA; Gheerbrant, E; Prasad, GVR; Scanferla, A; Beck, RMD; Krause, D; Goswamia, A

Abstract

The paleogeographic history of the Indian subcontinent
is unique among Earth’s landmasses. From being
part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana for most of
the Mesozoic, through a period of isolation as a drifting
entity in the Late Cretaceous, to colliding with Asia near the
Paleocene – Eocene boundary, the Indian subcontinent has
been associated with, and dissociated from, a variety of
landmasses. This paleogeographic history has been invoked
to explain aspects of the subcontinent’s modern-day fauna,
with a combination of endemic radiations, remnants from
Gondwana, and more recent immigrants from Laurasia.
Here, network approaches document how vertebrate faunas
of the Indian subcontinent, and specifically their relationships
to those of other landmasses, changed during the
subcontinent’s isolation from close faunal relationships with
Madagascar and South America in the Late Cretaceous to a
more Laurasian fauna most similar to those of Europe by the
Eocene.

Citation

subcontinent in the Global Faunal Network. In G. Prasad, & R. Patnaik (Eds.), Biological Consequences of Plate Tectonics : New Perspectives on Post-Gondwana Break-up – a tribute to Ashok Sahni (227-249). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_9

• Online Publication Date: Nov 24, 2020
• Publication Date: Dec 25, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 30, 2020
• Pages: 227-249
• Series Title: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology
• Book Title: Biological Consequences of Plate Tectonics : New Perspectives on Post-Gondwana Break-up – a tribute to Ashok Sahni
• ISBN: 9783030497521-(print);-9783030497538-(online)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_9
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8_9
• Related Public URLs: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49753-8