Salbardi-Belkher Inland Basin: A New Site of Lameta Sedimentation at the Border of Districts Amravati, Maharashtra and Betul, Madhya Pradesh, Central India

The Late Cretaceous infratrappean Lameta sediments in central and western India are known from five inland basins, viz. (i) Nand-Dongargaon, (ii) Jabalpur, (iii) Balasinor-Jhabua, (iv) Ambikapur-Amarkantak and (v) Sagar. Among these, the successions in the first three basins are well studied. The dinosaurian remains from the formations of these inland basins serve as a significant tool for regional reconstructions of palaeogeographic and palaeoenvironmental conditions during Lameta sedimentation. Here, a new inland basin with good outcrops of Lameta sediments having dinosaurian skeletal remains egg nests and eggs is documented. Considering the lithofacies and dinosaurian remains from this new inland basin, it is evident that Lameta sedimentation during the Late Cretaceous was not restricted to only five inland basins documented earlier, but was taking place contemporaneously in an additional inland basin in between Balasinor-Jhabua in the west and Nand- Dongargaon basin in the east. We propose the name of this new site as Salbardi-Belkher inland basin. This newly identified basin lying at the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh also redefines the existing palaeogeographic limits of Lameta sedimentation, including dinosaur inhabitation.