Avneet Kumar, Abu Talib* and Ainul Hasan Ansari

Department of Geology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002 (UP), India

(*Corresponding author, E-mail: talib04@gmail.com)

Jurassic foraminiferal biogeography of western India is hitherto unsettled. Only few studies on this topic exist which assign them either a Tethyan or an Antiboreal affinity along with other neighbouring regions of Malagasy, Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran and Afghanistan. The present study attempts to settle this controversy by analyzing the prolific foraminiferal assemblages recovered from different Jurassic exposures of Kutch and adjoining regions of the world and comparing them with some well- known Boreal assemblages of Europe and North America. The study reveals that the Jurassic foraminiferal assemblages of Kutch are closer to Boreal ones having only rare Tethyan elements. On this basis, the Jurassic foraminiferal assemblages are assigned to a distinct province of Antiboreal Realm, the Indo-East African Province, located at the southern margin of the Tethys Realm at about the same but opposite latitudes of Boreal Realm in the southern hemisphere. The proposed Indo-East African Province represents a transitional zone between the Tethyan and Antiboreal realms, as indicated by the presence of rare occurrence of a few typical Tethyan genera in the Jurassic assemblages of Kutch.

Keywords: Jurassic Foraminifera, Kutch, Palaeobiogeography, Indo-East African Province, Antiboreal Realm