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Study area is Kutch Basin, western India. The subject domain is taphonomy. The material
used will be the newly discovered whale specimens and the existing larger benthic
foraminiferal tests of Eocene. Further field work is planned to collect more samples in
subsequent years. Whale specimens from other national and international repositories will
also be studied.
11. Review and status of research and development in the subject(Max. 500 words):

11.1 International Status:
Behrensmeyer (1978) and Behrensmeyer and Miller (2012) studied mostly terrestrial
vertebrates and set up a guiding outline for taphonomic studies. Astibia et al. (2004) and
Esperante et al. (2015) showed that thin sections of bones often give important taphonomic
information on marine mammals. The hundreds of whale (Mysticeti) specimens found in
Miocene /Pliocene Pisco Formation, Peru, their excellent preservation and high degree of
articulation have been studied by Esperante et al (2015). They inferred that the host
sedimentation rates appear much higher in Pisco than other modern and ancient settings with
whale skeletons. Astibia et al (2005) indicated that sedimentology and taphonomy of sirenian
remains from the Middle Eocene of the Pamplona Basin (Navarre, western Pyrenees) suggests
interesting aspects. The presence of epibiontic activity showing that the bones were exposed
for a while prior to the burial and the histological structures in the peripheral region, are filled
by pyrite and iron oxides probably correspond to microbial bioerosion. The major mineral
component of the fossil bones is francolite (carbonate fluorapatite).

Taphonomic studies on the foraminifera are plenty. This includes the work of Ćosović et al.,
(2012) who noted that careful microtaphofacies study based on the foraminifera in carbonates
can redefine the paleoecological interpretation in carbonates as suggested by the degree of
damage suffered by foraminifera, which sometimes seem much greater than what reworking
and storm environments can produce. Experiments have been conducted by scientists to back
this statement. In such cases turbidity flows and bioerosion are far more likely as seen in the
works of Lipps, (1988) and Beavington-Penney, (2004). Other important studies in this field
include those of Loubere and Gary.,(1990), Nebelsick et al., (2011), Babazadeh and Alavi.,
(2013), Tomassetti and Benedetti (2020).
11.2 National Status:

Sahni and Mishra (1972, 1975), Satsangi and Mukhopadhyay (1975) particularly Kumar and
Sahni (1986) studied Remingtonocetidae from Kutch. Bajpai et al. (2011) described a new
skull of Remingtonocetus harudiensis from Harudi Formation. Gingerich et al., (1995), Bajpai
and Thewissen (2000), Thewissen and Hussain (2000), Das et al (2009), Thewissen and
Bajpai (2009), Bajpai and Thewissen (2014) also studied the whales. Sirenians are studied by
Sahni and Mishra (1975), Savage and Tewari (1977), Tewari et al., (1977), Bajpai and
Domning (1997), Bajpai et al., (2006) and Bajpai et al., (2009) and Thewissen and Bajpai
(2009)).

Taxonomy, age and geochemistry of foraminifera were studied by Sengupta (1963, 2000),
Saraswati et al., (1993), Sarkar et al (2003), Sengupta (2009), Sengupta et al (2011, 2014),
and Saraswati et al.(2012), Kundal (2014), Özcan et al., (2018), Keller et al (2013), Özcan
and Saraswati (2014), Khanolkar and Saraswati (2014), Khanolkar et al (2017, 2019), Fadel
and Price (2017) and Saraswati et al., (2017) among others.

However, exclusive taphonomic studies on marine vertebrates and/ or foraminifera of Kutch
are rare. The taphonomy of the non-marine vertebrates from Gondwana sediments have been

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