Tertiary Echinoidea of the Kohat-Potwar Basin

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary The author describes the results, to dte, of work on the Tertiary echinoids of the Kohat district and northern Punjab. He recalls facts published in previous papers, and deals with collections more recently made. He outlines the stratigraphy of the northern basin, and shows how its echinoids help to correlate its elements with the early Tertiary deposits of Baluchistan and Sind. I. Introduction A Number of Tertiary echinoids from the Kohat-Potwar basin have already been dealt with (Davies 1925, 1926A, 1927, 1937), but many more were collected during my last visit to India. An attempt is here made to summarize existing information on the subject. By the expression “Kohat-Potwar basin” (cf. Davies 1940B, p. 489; 1940C, p. 209), is meant an area approximately covered by the Kohat district and the Potwar plateau. This region formed a fairly well-marked basin during late Cretaceous and early Tertiary times, when an arm of the Tethyan sea crossed the north-western corner of the Indian horst on its way to what is now southern Tibet (Davies 1940B). In the final phases of its marine history this basin showed increased individuality, owing to earth movements which severed its trans-Himalayan extension to the east and restricted its communications with Sind to the south. II. Marine Tertiary Sequence in the Basin It seems that land, in this region, stood higher to the south-east than to the north-west at the close of Mesozoic times, for Jurassic beds are often directly overlain by Upper Ranikot beds on the Salt