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Sunil Bajpai

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Indian Paleontologist

Sunil Bajpai
Sunil Bajpai during field work near Jaisalmer City
Born (1961-09-30) 30 September 1961 (age 63)
NationalityIndian
EducationPh.D. in Paleontology
Alma materPanjab University, Chandigarh
OccupationVertebrate Paleontologist
Employer(s)Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand
Organization(s)Former Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow

Sunil Bajpai is the Chair Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology in the Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. He is in service as a professor at IIT Roorkee since 1st January 1996 till 30 September 2026. He also served as the director of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences from January 2013 to July 2018.

Sunil Bajpai predominantly works on the Cenozoic vertebrates of India with focus on marine mammals, such as whales and sea cows. Bajpai and his collaborators fossil discoveries from the Eocene of Kutch (Gujarat) and the Himalayas have helped in understanding how whales have evolved. Bajpai also works on land mammals, which includes the early representatives of horses, artiodactyls, and primates, such as the stem perissodactyl family Cambaytheriidae, artiodactyl Gujaratia, and primates such as the adapoid Marcgodinotius and the omomyid Vastanomys. Additionally, he has worked on many other fossil vertebrates such as sharks, bony fishes, frogs, snakes, lizards, insectivores, rodents, etc. He has also been involved in studies of latest Cretaceous-Paleocene faunas of the Deccan volcanic province of India and their implications in understanding the northward drift of the Indian tectonic plate.

In 2023, Bajpai and colleagues reported on Tharosaurus indicus, India's first dicraeosaurid dinosaur, from the Thar Desert of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan state, western India. The fossils were unearthed from Middle Jurassic outcrops of the Jaisalmer Formation. The taxon likely represents the oldest known record of this group and, seen in conjunction with previously known early Jurassic sauropods from India (Barapasaurus, Kotasaurus), suggests that what is now India may have been a major centre for neosauropod evolution. In 2024, he coauthored the descriptions of what may be the largest known madtsoiid snake, Vasuki indicus from Naredi Formation, and the mammal Indotriconodon from the Late Cretaceous Intertrappean Beds.

Education

Bajpai carried out his Ph.D. studies in Paleontology from the Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, in 1990.

Honors and awards

  • Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (2008)
  • Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2007)
  • National Geoscience Award, Ministry of Mines, Government of India (2014)
  • National award for Geosciences and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India (2018)
  • Ptilotrypa bajpaii a fossil bryozoan, and Limnocythere bajpaii a fossil ostracod are named after Bajpai in recognition of his contributions

Collaborators

J. G. M. Thewissen, the Dutch-American Paleontologist from the Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstow,  whose research is mainly focused on whale evolution, and Daryl Domning from Howard University, Washington D.C., specialist of fossil sirenians have been the main collaborators of Bajpai.

Selected publications

References

  1. "Sunil Bajpai". www.iitr.ac.in. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  2. "Welcome to BSIP". www.bsip.res.in. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  3. ^ Thewissen, J. G. M.; Cooper, Lisa Noelle; George, John C.; Bajpai, Sunil (2009). "From Land to Water: the Origin of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises". Evolution: Education and Outreach. 2 (2): 272–288. doi:10.1007/s12052-009-0135-2. ISSN 1936-6426. S2CID 11583496.
  4. ^ Thewissen, J. G. M.; Cooper, Lisa Noelle; Clementz, Mark T.; Bajpai, Sunil; Tiwari, B. N. (2007). "Whales originated from aquatic artiodactyls in the Eocene epoch of India". Nature. 450 (7173): 1190–1194. Bibcode:2007Natur.450.1190T. doi:10.1038/nature06343. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 18097400. S2CID 4416444.
  5. Bajpai, S.; Thewissen, J. G. M.; Sahni, A. (2009). "The origin and early evolution of whales: macroevolution documented on the Indian Subcontinent". Journal of Biosciences. 34 (5): 673–686. doi:10.1007/s12038-009-0060-0. ISSN 0250-5991. PMID 20009264. S2CID 28232300.
  6. Bajpai, Sunil; Thewissen, J. G. M.; Kapur, Vivesh Vir; Tiwari, B. N.; Sahni, Ashok (2006). "Eocene and Oligocene sirenians (Mammalia) from Kachchh, India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 26 (2): 400–410. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[400:eaosmf]2.0.co;2. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 86682899.
  7. Bajpai, Sunil; Kay, Richard F.; Williams, Blythe A.; Das, Debasis P.; Kapur, Vivesh V.; Tiwari, B. N. (2008). "The oldest Asian record of Anthropoidea". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (32): 11093–11098. Bibcode:2008PNAS..10511093B. doi:10.1073/pnas.0804159105. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2516236. PMID 18685095.
  8. Bajpai, Sunil; Kapur, Vivesh V.; Thewissen, J. G. M.; Das, Debasis P.; Tiwari, B. N.; Sharma, Ritu; Saravanan, N. (2005). "Early eocene primates from Vastan lignite mine, Gujarat, western India". Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India. 50 (2): 43–45. ISSN 0552-9360.
  9. Bajpai, Sunil; Kapur, Vivesh V; Das, Debasis P; Tiwari, B N; N, Saravanan; Sharma, Ritu (2005). "Early Eocene land mammals from the Vastan Lignite Mine, District Surat (Gujarat), western India". Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India. 50 (1): 101–113.
  10. Carolin, Nora; Bajpai, Sunil; Maurya, Abhayanand Singh; Schwarzhans, Werner (2022). "New perspectives on late Tethyan Neogene biodiversity development of fishes based on Miocene (~ 17 Ma) otoliths from southwestern India". PalZ. 97: 43–80. doi:10.1007/s12542-022-00623-9. ISSN 0031-0220. S2CID 249184395.
  11. Das, Debasis P.; Carolin, Nora; Bajpai, Sunil (2022). "A nyctitheriid insectivore (Eulipotyphla, Mammalia) of Asian affinity from the early Eocene of India". Historical Biology. 34 (7): 1157–1165. Bibcode:2022HBio...34.1157D. doi:10.1080/08912963.2021.1966002. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 238735010.
  12. Kumar, Krishna; Bajpai, Sunil; Pandey, Pragya; Ghosh, Triparna; Bhattacharya, Debasish (2022). "Hybodont sharks from the Jurassic of Jaisalmer, western India". Historical Biology. 34 (6): 953–963. Bibcode:2022HBio...34..953K. doi:10.1080/08912963.2021.1954920. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 238781606.
  13. Chatterjee, Sankar; Scotese, Christopher R; Bajpai, Sunil (2017). The Restless Indian Plate and Its Epic Voyage from Gondwana to Asia: Its Tectonic, Paleoclimatic, and Paleobiogeographic Evolution. Geological Society of America. doi:10.1130/spe529. ISBN 978-0-8137-2529-1.
  14. Bajpai, Sunil; Datta, Debajit; Pandey, Pragya; Ghosh, Triparna; Kumar, Krishna; Bhattacharya, Debasish (4 August 2023). "Fossils of the oldest diplodocoid dinosaur suggest India was a major centre for neosauropod radiation". Scientific Reports. 13 (1): 12680. Bibcode:2023NatSR..1312680B. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-39759-2. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 10403599. PMID 37542094.
  15. Datta, Debajit; Bajpai, Sunil (18 April 2024). "Largest known madtsoiid snake from warm Eocene period of India suggests intercontinental Gondwana dispersal". Scientific Reports. 14 (1): 8054. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-58377-0. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 11549349. PMID 38637509.
  16. Bajpai, Sunil; Rautela, Abhay; Yadav, Ravi; Wilson Mantilla, Gregory P. (29 February 2024). "The first eutriconodontan mammal from the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.2312234. ISSN 0272-4634.
  17. ^ "Sunil Bajpai". iitr.ac.in. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  18. "Indian Academy of Sciences". fellows.ias.ac.in. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  19. "A compilation of national geoscience awardees 1995-2012" (PDF). Government of India - Ministry of Mines. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 September 2022.
  20. "National Award for Geoscience & Technology - Prof. Sunil Bajpai" (PDF). www.moes.gov.in. Ministry of Earth Sciences. 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  21. Swami, Narendra K.; Ernst, Andrej; Tripathi, Satish C.; Barman, Prasenjit; Bharti, S.K.; Rana, Y.P. (2019). "A new cryptostome bryozoan Ptilotrypa from the Upper Ordovician Yong Limestone Formation: Tethyan sequence of Kumaun Higher Himalaya, India". Journal of Paleontology. 93 (3): 585–591. Bibcode:2019JPal...93..585S. doi:10.1017/jpa.2018.94. ISSN 0022-3360. S2CID 135358848.
  22. Khosla, S. C.; Nagori, M. L. (2007). "Ostracoda from the Inter-trappean Beds of Mohgaon-Haveli, Chhindwara District, Madhya Pradesh". Journal of the Geological Society of India. S2CID 134191312.
  23. Bajpai, Sunil; Thewissen, J. G. M.; Kapur, Vivesh Vir; Tiwari, B. N.; Sahni, Ashok (2006). "Eocene and Oligocene sirenians (Mammalia) from Kachchh, India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 26 (2): 400–410. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[400:EAOSMF]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 86682899.
  24. Nummela, Sirpa; Thewissen, J. G. M.; Bajpai, Sunil; Hussain, S. Taseer; Kumar, Kishor (2004). "Eocene evolution of whale hearing". Nature. 430 (7001): 776–778. Bibcode:2004Natur.430..776N. doi:10.1038/nature02720. PMID 15306808. S2CID 4372872.
  25. Bajpai, Sunil; Domning, Daryl P. (1997). "A new dugongine sirenian from the early Miocene of India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 17 (1): 219–228. Bibcode:1997JVPal..17..219B. doi:10.1080/02724634.1997.10010965. ISSN 0272-4634.
  26. Baipai, Sunil; Domning, Daryl P.; Das, D.P.; Velez-Juarbe, Jorge; Mishra, V. P. (2010). "A new fossil sirenian (Mammalia, Dugonginae) from the Miocene of India". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 258 (1): 39–50. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2010/0082. ISSN 0077-7749.

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