New Record of Plectoidothyris from the Middle Jurassic Sequence of Jaisalmer Basin, Western India: Implications on the Easterly Brachiopod Migrations

The Bathonian sediments of the Jaisalmer Basin, India host a terebratulide brachiopod Plectoidothyris which has been previously known from the Bajocian rocks of the Boreal Province. The sharp and prominent plication of the anterior commissure and increased length of costae separates the Jaisalmer specimens from other known species of the genus and the population represents an endemic species - Plectoidothyris jaisalmerensis. The population was only cursorily described earlier lacking in details of precise stratigraphic control and was wrongly assigned to a different genus. The present study is based on a large number of specimens from different localities with precise stratigraphic data, coupled with this some recent findings of time-diagnostic ammonites have helped determine the Plectoidothyris jaisalmerensis duration in the Jaisalmer Basin as the Late Bathonian. Presence of lower Jurassic Boreal brachiopod genera in the Middle Jurassic rocks of Ethiopian and Indo - Madagascan biogeographic provinces has been noticed earlier whereto Plectoidothyris is a new addition while it is also the first report of the genus from the Jurassic of India. The brachiopod migrations from the north to south of the Tethys provide evidences for opening of shallow water routes in the Tethyan seaway and are probably indicative of warmer water conditions in the Indo-Madagascan and African areas during the Middle Jurassic.