| Lower Maleri Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Late Carnian–early Norian | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Unit of | Gondwana Group |
| Underlies | Upper Maleri Formation |
| Overlies | Basement |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 19°12′N 79°42′E / 19.2°N 79.7°E / 19.2; 79.7 |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 36°24′S 38°12′E / 36.4°S 38.2°E / -36.4; 38.2 |
| Region | Andhra Pradesh & Telangana |
| Country | India |
| Extent | Pranhita–Godavari Basin |
Lower Maleri Formation (India) | |
The Lower Maleri Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India. It is the lowermost member of the Pranhita–Godavari Basin. It is of late Carnian to early Norian age (Upper Triassic), and is notable for its fossils of early archosaurs.1
Vertebrate fauna
cf. Angistorhinus and cf. Typothorax have also been recovered from it.23
| Vertebrates from the Lower Maleri Formation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
| Alickmeron4 | A. maleriensis | Partial distal femur | An objective junior synonym of Alwalkeria maleriensis5 | |||
| Alwalkeria1 | A. maleriensis1 | Andhra Pradesh | "Partial skull and postcranial remains."6 | An avemetatarsalian5 |  | |
| Panthasaurus | P. maleriensis | A temnospondyl | ||||
| Exaeretodon | E. statisticae2 |  | ||||
| Hyperodapedon | H. huxleyi2 |  | ||||
| Malerisaurus | M. robinsonae2 |  | ||||
| Massospondylus | M. hislopi | Andhra Pradesh | "Isolated vertebrae."7 | Later found to be indeterminate prosauropod remains | ||
| Parasuchus | P. hislopi2 | A parasuchid phytosaur. | ||||
| Plateosaurus | Indeterminate | Andhra Pradesh | Later found to be indeterminate prosauropod remains | |||
Color key
|
Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; |
Correlations
The formation has been correlated with the Molteno Formation (Karoo Basin) and Pebbly Arkose Formation of Africa, the Santa Maria Formation of the Paraná Basin in Brazil, the Ischigualasto Formation of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin of Argentina and the lowermost Chinle Formation of North America.8
References
References
- Weishampel et al., 2004, pp.525–527
- Novas et al, 2011
- Kutty et al., 2007
- Sen, Sulagna; Ray, Sanghamitra (2025). "Taxonomic reassessment of archosaurs with dinosaurian affinities from the lower fauna of the Upper Triassic Maleri Formation of India and their significance". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 45 (3) e2546434. doi:10.1080/02724634.2025.2546434.
- McDavid, S.N.; Marchant, C.J.; Reid, I.J. (2 February 2026). "Alickmeron Sen & Ray, 2025 is an objective junior synonym of Alwalkeria Chatterjee & Creisler, 1994". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. doi:10.1080/02724634.2025.2604088.
- "Table 2.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 26.
- "Table 12.1," in Weishampel et al., 2004, p.236
- Novas et al., 2011, p.343
Bibliography
- Novas, Fernando E.; Ezcurra, Martín D.; Chatterjee, Sankar; Kutty, T.S. (2011), "New dinosaur species from the Upper Triassic Upper Maleri and Lower Dharmaram formations of central India", Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 101 (3–4): 333–349, Bibcode:2010EESTR.101..333N, doi:10.1017/S1755691011020093, retrieved 6 April 2019
- Kutty, T.S.; Chatterjee, S.; Galton, P.M.; Upchurch, P. (2007), "Basal sauropodomorphs (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Lower Jurassic of India: their anatomy and relationships", Journal of Paleontology, 81 (6): 1552–1574, Bibcode:2007JPal...81.1218K, doi:10.1666/04-074.1
- Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (2004), The Dinosauria, 2nd edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–880, ISBN 0-520-24209-2, retrieved 21 February 2019
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