An Overview of Recent Advances in the Mesozoic–Palaeogene Vertebrate Paleontology in the Context of India’s Northward Drift and Collision with Asia

Abstract

This review article summarizes the recent work done in India on fossil vertebrates from the Mesozoic-early Paleogene
interval, with focus on the past five years. Advances made during this period highlight the importance of India’s vertebrate
fossil record in our understanding of the origin and evolutionary history of several vertebrate groups and the dynamics of
intercontinental faunal dispersal and vicariance, especially in the context of India’s former position in the Gondwanaland
and its subsequent separation from the different Gondwana landmasses as it moved northward to finally collide with Asia
in the early Paleogene. These studies have led to a better understanding of the mode of evolution of tetrapods on the drifting
Indian plate and provide independent constraints to test the traditional models favouring India’s physical isolation from all
other landmasses, especially during the late Cretaceous phase of its northward drift. Recent data points to faunal interchanges
between India, Africa and Europe at or near the K-Pg boundary and also suggests that the Indian landmass was the centre
of origin/early evolution for several orders of modern mammals, including cetaceans (whales), perissodactyls (horses,
tapirs) and primates.