An overview of recent research on the fossil biota of the Deccan Volcanic Province, India

The Deccan volcanism of India, representing one of the largest flood basalt provinces of the world, has attracted wider attention in recent years because of its supposed role in the mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary. In this context, flora and fauna recovered from the sedimentary beds deposited immediately before the initiation of Deccan volcanism (infratrappean beds) and those deposited during quiescent stages of volcanism (intertrappean beds) assume great significance in understanding the effects of the volcanism on contemporary biota, biogeographic origins and distribution of different taxonomic groups, and the role of volcanism in K/Pg boundary mass extinction. In this paper, a detailed review of the research done on these aspects in the last 4 years is presented.