Early Permian brachiopod faunas from Peninsular India: Their Gondwanan relationships

Abstract

The Early Permian (Late Asselian? to Aktastinian?) brachiopod faunas of Peninsular India are revised in terms of current taxonomy. Genera such as Semilingula, Arctitreta, Etherilosia, Strophalosia, Aulosteges, Bandoproductus, Cyrtella, Neospirifer, Crassispirifer, Tomiopsis and Gilledia confirm the Gondwanan aspect of the faunas and a close relationship, at the generic level, to the Early Permian brachiopod faunas of Western Australia. Peninsular Indian Early Permian brachiopod faunas belong to a complex of Gondwanan and peri‐Gondwanan faunas from Oman and the Pamirs in the West to Australasia in the east. This distribution implies relative freedom of migration for the faunas along the northern margin of Gondwana during the Early Permian.