Sharks and rays (chondrichthyes) from the Upper Cretaceous red beds of the south-central Pyrenees (Lleida, Spain): indices of an India-Eurasia connection

Abstract

Six chondrichthyan taxa are recorded in Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) red beds of the south-central Pyrenees (Tremp Formation, Lleida, Spain), indicating marine influence in the palaeoenvironment. Two ray species found in Spain have been previously described in India. One ray species conforms to the Gondwanan genus 19dabatis and the endernic Indian species 19dabatis indicus Prasad and Cappetta, 1993 [Prasad, G.V.R., Cappetta, H., 1993. Late Cretaceous selachian from India and the age of the Deccan traps. Palaeontology 36 (1), 231-248.] The other ray from the Tremp Formation is also close to the Indian material assigned to Rhombodus sp. 2. The lirnited dispersal abilities of benthic rays points to a shallow trans-Tethyan connection between Eurasia and India at the end of the Cretaceous. The data increase the evidence of a biogeographical re1ationship between Eurasia and Gondwanan continents at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.