Testudoid and crocodiloid eggshells from the Upper Cretaceous Deccan Intertrappean Beds of Central India

Chelonian and crocodilian eggs and eggshells are relatively rare in the fossil record as compared to those of dinosaurs and avians. In India, prior to the present report, turtle eggshells have been reported from the supposed Late Cretaceous infratrappean beds of Duddukuru, Andhra Pradesh. Likewise, crocodilian eggshells were described from the intertrappean beds of Bombay whose assignment to Maastrichtian age is not based on any age diagnostic fossils. Here we report the first definitive Late Cretaceous turtle and crocodilian eggshells from the intertrappean beds of Kisalpuri, Dindori District, Madhya Pradesh (Central India). The testudoid eggshells from Kisalpuri, though broadly comparable to those of Duddukuru, particularly in radial structure, differ from each other in finer details such as external surface ornamentation and the organization of crystallites in the radial section. The crocodiloid eggshells from Central India are distinct from known fossil eggshells in having non-interlocking wedge-like crystallites and ringed craters on the basal plate groups. Keeping in view the limited fossil specimens available for the present study, the testudoid and crocodiloid eggshells from the Late Cretaceous of Central India are referred to the oofamilies Testudoolithidae and Krokolithidae, respectively.