Rupendra Babu

The Precambrian-Cambrian boundary problem and its prospects, Northwest Himalaya, India

The Precambrian-Cambrian boundary problem is studied in an areno-argillaceous sequence in the Kashmir and Spiti Valley, Northwest Himalaya, India. In Kashmir, a rich and diversified microbiota-cryptarchs and algae of the Late Precambrian, and low Lower Cambrian trace fossils are recorded. In the Spiti Valley, the yield of microbiota is poor and the trace fossils are late Lower Cambrian.--Modified journal abstract.

First Record of Metazoan Eggs and Embryos from Early Cambrian Chert Member of Deo ka Tibba Formation, Tal Group, Uttarakhand Lesser Himalaya

The phosphatized globular to sub-oval metazoan eggs with distinctively ornamented covering and phosphatized polar lobe forming embryos are recorded for the first time from the black phosphatic chert lenticles and bands of early Cambrian Chert Member of Deo ka Tibba Formation, Tal Group, Uttarakhand Lesser Himalaya. Similar metazoan eggs have been recorded earlier from early Cambrian rocks of Shaanxi Province, China, northwestern Canada, Australia, Mongolia, Siberia and Kazakhstan. These eggs are found in association with Small Shelly Fossils (SSF) and may belong to them. However, polar lobe forming embryos have been earlier recorded from Neoproterozoic rocks of southwestern China only. Similar embryos are common in modern molluscs and bilaterians.

Neoproterozoic age based on microbiotas from the Raipur Group of Baradwar sub-basin, Chhattisgarh

An assemblage of structurally preserved organic-walled microfossils (OWMs) from the macerated residue of black carbonaceous shale belonging to Saradih Formation, the youngest carbonate horizon of the Raipur Group, Chhattisgarh Supergroup exposed at on the right bank of Mahanadi River, NE of Sarangarh township in Raigarh district, Chhattisgarh is being reported for the first time. The assemblage is comprised of 19 taxa of 13 genera belong to eukaryotes and prokaryotes viz. Leiosphaeridia, Stictosphaeridium, Dictyotidium, Synsphaeridium, Symplassosphaeridium, Satka, Trachysphaeridium, Goniosphaeridium, Trachyhystrichosphaera, Vandalosphaeridium, Siphonophycus, Oscillatoriopsis and Polythrichoides. The comprehensive account of recovered microbiotic assemblage can be correlated with globally known Neoproterozoic (early Cryogenian) assemblages, deposited in tidal complexes of shallow sea.