Fossil Dicotyledonous woods from the Tertiary of Eastern India

Abstract

Fossil woods representing the genera Elaeocarpus, Mallotus, Afzelia, Bursera, Kayea and Terminalia have been identified from the Tertiary of Tipam sandstones in Assam. Their presence in Eastern India during the Upper Miocene is note-worthy from the standpoint of their palaeographical distribution. The fossil wood of Bursera is known for the first time from India and abroad.

Some fossil woods from Tipam Sandstone of Assam and Nagaland

“…The fossil woods of Koompassia are also known from the Neogene of Bengal and Malayan Peninsula (Kramer, 1974; indicating its wider distribution during that time. Like Koompassia, a few other elements, viz., Dryobalanops (Awasthi, 1971;Schweitzer, 1958), Anisoptera (Prakash & Tripathi, 1970b), Gluta (Prakash & Tripathi, 1969b;Prakash, 1973), Swintonia (Prakash & Tripathi, 1969a;, Ajzelia•lntsia (Prakash, 1973;Prakash & Tripathi, 1975), Sindora (Lalitha & Prakash, 1980), etc., known from the Neogene sediments of India, Mynmar and Malaysia are now confined to Mynmar and Malayan region where they still grow luxuriantly in the tropical evergreen forest. None of these genera has so far been found in Indian Palaeogene sediments.…”

Contributions to the deccan intertrappean flora of Nawargaon, Wardha District, Maharashtra, India

“…From a detailed comparison with the woods of various species of Bursera Linneaus available at the Xylaria of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow and Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, it was found that the fossil shows maximum resemblance with Bursera serrata Wallich. Prakash and Tripathi (1975) instituted the genus Burseroxylon to include fossil woods belonging to modern genus Bursera. So far two species of this genus have been described from Tertiary of India.…”

Late Cenozoic plant-impressions from Mahuadanr valley, Palamu District, Bihar

“…Woods of Garuga and Bursera are nearly similar and have been described under the generic name Burseroxylon Prakash & Tripathi 1975. Burseroxylon preserratum (modern comparable form Bursera serrata) has been described by Prakash and Tripathi (1975) from the Tipam sandstones of Assam and Bande and Prakash (1983) from the Deccan Intertrappean beds. described Burseroxylon garugoides from the Namsang beds of Arunachal Pradesh and compared it with the modern wood of Garuga pinnata Roxb.…”

“…Fossil woods have been described under the generic name Mallotoxylon Lakhanpal & Dayal 1964, whereas leafimpressions are known under the generic name MallolUS itself. Lakhanpal and Dayal (1964) d~scribed Mal/otoxylon keriense (modern comparable form Mallotus philippensis) from the Deccan Inrenrappean beds of Keria in Chhindwara District of Madhya Pradesh and Prakash and Tripathi (1975) described Mauotoxylon assamicum (modern comparable form M. philippensis) from the Tipam sandstones of Assam. Later, Roy and Ghosh (1982) described Mallotoxylon cleidinoides from the Tertiary beds of Shantiniketan in West Bengal and traced the affinities of their fossil wood with Cleidion javanicum.…”