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2001 |
Eocene stratigraphy and archaeocete whales (Mammalia, Cetacea) of Drug Lahar in the Eastern Sulaiman Range, Balochistan (Pakistan).
Contrib. Mus. Paleont. Univ. Michigan 30(11): 269-319. 12 tabs. 24 figs. Dec. 31, 2001.
–ABSTRACT: Field work in autumn 1999 was concentrated in marine middle and upper Eocene strata of Dabh Nala, a tributary of Drug Lahar, on the eastern flank of the Sulaiman Range, Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Objectives included:(1) recovery of better specimens of previously-known archaeocete whales; (2) recovery of new archaeocetes from new stratigraphic intervals; (3) comparison of Eocene formations here with those studied elsewhere in Balochistan and Punjab; and (4) better documentation of local and regional sea level cycles for refined correlation to eustasy on a global scale.
Ten stratigraphic intervals within the Habib Rahi and Domanda formations are now known to yield archaeocetes. These come from three distinct cycles of sea level rise and fall. Interpretation in the context of planktonic foraminifera1 and nannoplankton age control for a virtually continuous Baska-Habib RahiDomanda-Pir Koh-Drazinda stratigraphic section shows that the Habib Rahi through Domanda cycles match the global pattern of sea level change for the Lutetian. Archaeocete-bearing strata of the Harudi Formation in Kutch (India) are early Bartonian rather than Lutetian, and correlative with the Pir Koh flooding event in Pakistan.
New archaeocete specimens described here include the first record of the remingtonocetid Andrewsiphius sloani, new combination, from the upper Domanda Formation (late Lutetian in age); a new species of Remingtonocetus, R. domandaensis, based on a partial skull, a dentary with most teeth, and associated postcranials, from the middle Domanda Formation (middle Lutetian); and a new genus and species of protocetid, Qaisracetus arifi, based on a partial skull and unusually complete articulated axial skeleton from the upper Domanda Formation (late Lutetian).
Protosiren sattaensis, 281, 318.
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