Foreword It was toward the beginning of the 15th century that active interest in the palaeontological studies of the country was taken by H. Falconer, P. 7. Cautley and R. Lydekker. However systematic work started gaining ground only in the 20th century with masterly contributions by B. Brown. G. E. Pilgrim, W. D. Matthew, C. C. Mook and E. H. Colbert to mention only a few. A number of expeditions from various countries, especially the United States and Japan, made large palaeontological collections in India. Gradually numerous Indian workers developed an interest in the study of vertebrate palaeonotology and at present a number of scholars are busy unravelling the mysteries of the past. The study of these animals helps to evaluate the ecology, morphology and geographic distribution of the fauna besides tracing the phylogeny of some groups. The wide geographic occurrence of the fossils, and the short time range of many genera and species make some of the mammals found in Indian Pleistocene deposits, the most useful means of correlation with Tertiary deposits throughout the world.
Preface During the last thirty years Pleistocene fauna has been studied within the perspective of palaeoecology, biogeography, evolution and man's cultural development. The classic contribu- tions of numerous foreign and Indian scientists like Falconer, Cautley, Lydekker, Pilgrim, Matthew. Brown, Colbert, Sahni, Chakravarty, Prasad and Khan have thus given palaeontology its rightful place in India. Furthermore, in recent years a number of scientists from the U. S. A. (E Simons, G. D. Johnson ), Japan (T. Kamei), the USSR (V. A. Ranov, M. N. Alekseev), Romania (D. Grigorescu), Nigeria (L B. Halstead) and the U. K. (R. J. G. Savage) have explored Indian Pleistocene deposits and have gathered new data bearing upon many problems of palaeonto- logy, palaeoecology and chronology.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
