| Abstrakt: |
A nearly complete skull of Remingtonocetus harudiensiswas discovered from the Harudi Formation of the Kutch Basin, western India. Though several specimens have been collected over the last two decades by earlier workers, this skull shows variations in morphology within the species that were not known earlier. Hence, this finding is significant because it helps in expanding our knowledge of the skull morphology with the addition of characters such as the larger size of the skull, the difference in dental morphology, and the two-ridged external nasal feature and our understanding of how the molar morphology can vary within the same species. The newly excavated skull is the largest Remingtonocetusskull so far discovered and is similar to the size of Dalanistes ahmedifrom Kutch, India and from Baluchistan, Pakistan. Thus, the range of the overall body size of the species will change considerably towards the higher side nullifying a major distinction between Dalanistesand Remingtonocetus. The new skull was excavated from the chocolate brown shales of the clastic facies of the Harudi Formation, in the inner ramp of a lagoonal phase. It is approximately 4 m above the nodular limestones from which the other Remingtonocetusmaterials were previously described. The limestone represents the carbonate facies of the Formation formed in a middle to outer ramp setting. An emended diagnosis of R. harudiensisis provided in this study. The Bartonian Harudi Formation of the Kutch Basin, thus, becomes unique in having Remingtonocetusspecimens discovered from two different lithological facies from both the inner and outer ramp settings. |
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