Stratigraphic palaeontological and palaeoecological investigation of Ladakh molasse group Ladakh Himalayas

Abstract

The present work was carried out in the Ladakh Molasse Group deposited in and around Kargil in the Union Territory of Ladakh. The Ladakh Molasse Group consists mainly of shale, mudstone, sandstone and conglomerate exuviated as continental clastic deposits from the rising Himalaya. The main objectives set for the present study were; 1) collection of vertebrate and invertebrate fossil remains from the Ladakh Molasse Group and study their taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities; 2) Magnetostratigraphic, Biostratigraphic and Lithostratigraphic study of the Ladakh Molasse Group to provide precise ages and sedimentary environments; 3) To reconstruct the Palaeoecology of the area using stable carbon and oxygen isotopic studies of fossils and microwear analysis of mammalian dental remains. Previous workers have assigned ages ranging from Cretaceous to Pliocene for the Ladakh Molasse Group, mainly based on fossil remains. Despite all these studies the age of Ladakh Molasse Group is still to be constrained precisely, because most of the fossils are either long ranging or not age diagnositic. Also, no palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the area has been done based on the faunal records. Therefore, keeping this problem in mind, the molasse deposits in Kargil district (western Ladakh) were studied during several field visits from August 2018 to November 2021. The present work was undertaken to fill the gap in the fossil record (particularly vertebrates), to reconstruct the palaeoecology and to constrain the age of the Ladakh Molasse Group using paleomagnetic studies. newline