Neotectonic Lake and Vertebrate Fossils in Hemavati Catchment, Hassan District, Karnataka

Neotectonic reactivation of an ancient shear zone as active faults in the upper catchment of the Hemavati River caused ponding of a petty stream, resulting in the formation of a more than 10 km long take. Carbonaceous clay and mud characterized by abundant calcareous concretions including rhizocretions represent the lake that originated nearly 14 ka ago and dried up about 1300 yr B.P. In the upper 2-m sequence of the lake sediments were found remains of vertebrate animals which lived near the swamp in the terrain experiencing conditions of increasing dryness in the environment. The fragmentary nature of the fossils does not allow generic identification of the animals belonging to the Family Bovidae.