Study discovers a Late Miocene mammalian assemblage in Kutch, India, suggesting a diverse paleoecological environment.
The Tapar locality in the Kutch (Kachchh) region of Gujarat State, western India, preserves a Late Miocene (early Tortonian ∼10 Ma) mammalian assemblage. The present investigation strongly supports previous studies that have established the highly constrained chronology for the Sivapithecus-bearing horizon. Recent discoveries of soricomorphs Suncus honeyi (10.5-6.5 Ma) corroborate the established rodent biochronology through their stratigraphic alignment with terminal occurrences of key murine and gerbilline taxa. Additionally, new findings of large mammals, including Gaindatherium vidali (14.1-7.9 Ma), Sivalhippus cf. S. nagriensis (10.48.79 Ma), Dorcatherium majus (10.49-7 Ma), and Hippopotamodon cf. H. major (11.5-6.4 Ma) further support a Late Miocene age. The biostratigraphy of these mammals correlates the Tapar locality with the fauna from the lower Nagri Formation of the Potwar Plateau. Furthermore, the expanded record of soricomorph diversity at Tapar suggests the presence of vertically stratified C3 woodlands. This aligns with previous paleoecological interpretations of a resource-rich, coastal forested environment where litter-dwelling crocidurines coexisted with arboreal and fossorial rodents, alongside mixed browser-grazers.
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Choudhary et al. (2026) studied this question.
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