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attempted by few workers (Bandhopadhyay et al., 2002; Mukherjee and Ray, 2012 and Dutta
et. al., 2020, Raxit and Ray 2020) though.
11.3 Novelty of the present proposal:

The project hinges on the taphonomy of two imortant biotic elements of the Eocene deposits
of the Kutch basin, the whales and the larger benthic foraminifera to produce a picture of their
fossilization, fabric of deposition, productivity and sensitivity to lithounits among others. This
is a new horizon to probe.
12. Importance of the proposed project in the context of current status:
Taphonomy is the study of fossilization It deals with the organisms at the time of their death,
interval between death and fossil diagenesis after burial. Taphonomy of the two major Eocene
biotic elements, the larger benthic foraminifera and the whales will add new input on
fossilization processes of those two taxonomically distant groups. The vast array of previous
literatures on geology and paleontology of Kutch Eocene will help to provide the background
information. Taphonomy of whales and larger benthic foraminifera of Kutch is mostly an
untrodden path and the present project aims to walk on that track.
13. Review of the expertise available with the group/institute in the subject of the
project:
The PI and Prof. Saswati Bandyopadhyay the collaborator of the project have experience in
working with vertebrate fossils for the last few decades. Geology Unit of ISI is long known
for its research on fossil vertebrates. Apart from that, in the last decade, a group of workers
led by Dr. Shiladri Sekhar Das of this unit have started working on invertebrates of Kutch
basin. References on the studies on the invertebrate fossils of Kutch are given in the reference-
listing.

The PI has some past experience of working with larger benthic foraminifera.
14. Work Plan:

14.1. Methodology:

For the whale specimens, both new and already described by others, the following
techniques will be utilized-

1. Classical taphonomic methods viz. interpretation from the number of specimens,
presence and proportions of juvenile, middle age and adult specimens, nature of death,
nature of the community along with features like articulation/disarticulation of the
skeletons, number of species or genera, dominance of small/large bones, size and
orientation of the bones, sorting (hydraulic/other agents), completeness of the bones,
degree of weathering or abrasion, This will be followed by contemporary studies on
weathering parameters of fossil bones, phosphatization, articulation, polish, biogenic
bone modification and thin section study of bones.

2. Chemical analysis of bones, particularly analysis of REE will be carried out. This will
help to understand many aspects of bone diagenesis (Trueman et al 2003).

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