A New Fauna from the Deccan Intertrappean Sediments of Central India Reveals KP Extinction and Survivorship, and Origins of Asiatic Freshwater Molluscs

ABSTRACT A previously undescribed Danian freshwater intratrappean mollusc fauna from Barga, Shahpura District, Madhya Pradesh, Central India is dominated by bivalves and pulmonate gastropods. We introduce the new unionid genus and species Shahpuranaia shai (Tribe Indochinellini) with other bivalve taxa including a margaritiferid, and a sphaeriid tentatively assigned to Pisidium. The genus Telankhedilymnaea is introduced for elongate fusiform Lymnaeid gastropods. We record KP extinction survivorship amongst the Lymnaeids indicating that the intertrappeans were a Late Cretaceous to Early Palaeogene refuge. The Barga fauna lived prior to the diversification of the East and Southeast Asian mollusc faunas during the convergence between the Indian plate and Burma Terrane with Asia.