Kota-Formation
The Kota Formation is a lithostratigraphic formation in the Indian Deccan, which is known for its vertebrate fossils. It is continental sedimentary rocks, based on the lower and middle Jurassic ( Sinemurian to? Aalenian ) be dated.
Geological framework
The formation belongs to the Pranhita - Godavari Basin, which extends as a thin strip of central India in a southeasterly direction to the vicinity of the Bay of Bengal. Below the Kota formation follows the Dharmaram formation that happened during the Triassic - Jurassic boundary in the deposition and also numerous vertebrate finds come from; in the hanging wall of the formation, meanwhile, follows an unconformity on which follow the early Cretaceous sediments of Gangapur lineup.
Structure and lithology
The formation may be divided into two units lithostratigraphic - the lower and the upper unit. The lower unit is formed mainly by a 15 to 25 meter thick layer of compact, coarse-grained sandstone that is laterally and vertically separated from finer sandstones, siltstones and mudstones. The upper unit, meanwhile, consists of marls, a 1 to 2 meter thick layer of limestone, as well as alternations of sandstones and ferruginous shales together.
Presumably, the lower unit is deposited by a meandering flow system, while the upper unit has been deposited in particular by a Zopfstromsystem. The intermediary limestone situation probably came within a lake to deposit. The lower unit is dated to the Pliensbachian Sinemurian to; the upper unit to the Toarcian to? Aalenium.
Vertebrate fossils
From the lower unit the very original sauropod dinosaur Barapasaurus and Kotasaurus come. In addition, there were three mammalian species: Kotatherium from the family Kuehneotheriidae, Indotherium from the family Amphilestidae and Indozostrodon from the family Morganucodontidae.
From the upper unit to find fish as Lepidotes deccanensis, Paradapedon egertoni, Tetragonolepis oldhami, Pholidophorus kingii, Polidophorus indicus and Indocoelacanthus robustus. Reptiles include the turtle Indochelys, the pterosaurs Campylognathoides that Sphenodontier Rebbanasaurus and Godavarisaurus and shed lizard Bharatagama with a. Mammals Paikasigudodon Yadagiri and non assignable genera Dyskritodon, Nakunodon and Trishulotherium were with the Docodontiden Gondtherium and Godavariodon, the Amphilestiden? Detected, further there is this from the lower unit known Indotherium.