Fossil leaf-impressions from the Late Tertiary sediments of Mahuadanr Valley, Latehar District, Jharkhand, India

Abstract

Morphotaxonomical study of the leaf impressions collected from the Late Tertiary sediments of Mahuadanr Valley, Jharkhand, India has been done. The comparison of morphological features between the fossils and extant taxa revealed the occurrence of 13 species of 5 dicotyledonous families. On the basis of present assemblage, the palaeoclimate and phytogeography of Mahuadanr area during the Late Tertiary have been deduced. Present distribution of all the modern comparable species of the fossils indicates that these are presently found to grow in the tropical forests of the Himalayan foot hills, central India, south India and adjoining area of the Mahuadanr Valley, suggesting a mixed, mesophytic type of forest was flourishing in and around the fossil locality during the sedimentation. As most of the comparable species are found now-a-days in the vicinity of fossil locality of Mahuadanr it indicates that same flora has continued till now which suggests that there has been no marked climatic change in the area since the Late Tertiary time.

Plant–insect interaction patterns in the late Neogene palaeoforest of Chotanagpur Plateau, eastern India

“…The presence of authigenic pyrite occurring within the fossiliferous shale layers, and the overall sedimentary package, indicates a low oxygen floodplain lake environment (Kumar et al, 2000;Bajpai et al, 2001). Previous palaeobotanical studies from the Rajdanda Formation have reported a rich and diverse assemblage of fossil specimens including leaves and fruits (Bande and Srivastava, 1990;Srivastava and Bande, 1992;Srivastava et al, 1990;Singh and Prasad, 2007, 2009a, b, 2010Hazra et al 2021a, b, c).…”

“…Previous workers (Prakash et al, 1987;Srivastava and Bande, 1992;Guleria, 1992;Srivastava et al, 1992;Singh and Chauhan, 2008) have assigned the age of the Rajdanda Formation to the 'late Cenozoic' (Pliocene) based on megafossil records and palynological analysis. The district resource map as published by the Geological Survey of India of Palamau, Jharkhand, also assigns a Pliocene age to the Rajdanda Formation.…”

“…The Jharkhand palaeoforest was dominated by thermophillic angiosperm taxa (Puri and Mishra, 1982;Bande, 1992, Srivastava et al, 1990;Singh and Prasad 2007, 2009aSingh and Chauhan 2008;Hazra et al, 2021a, b). They exhibiting insect-induced folivory experienced a warm humid climate during the time of deposition and overall, the palaeoforest resembles a modern tropical forest in terms of palaeoclimate, physiognomy, floristics, and plant-insect interaction.…”

PaleogeneFicusleaves from India and their implications for fig evolution and diversification

“…C (Mathur et al, 1996) differ in having reticulate tertiary veins as compared to percurrent tertiaries in both F. paleovariegata and F. paleodicranostyla . The fossil leaves of F. benjamina (Prasad et al, 2002), F. eomysorensis (Tripathi et al, 2002), F. glomerata (Mahajan and Mahabale, 1973), F. macrocarpa (Singh and Prasad, 2008), F. miocenicus (Konomatsu and Awasthi, 1999), F. nepalensis (Prasad, 1990), F. oodlabariensis (Prasad et al, 2004; Prasad, 2006), F. raptiensis (Prasad and Awasthi, 1996), F. palaeoracemosa (Srivastava et al, 2011), F. champarense (Lakhanpal and Awasthi, 1984), and F. praecurticeps (Agarwal, 2002) possess an elliptical shape and so can be differentiated from our fossil leaf, F. dicranostyla , because it is ovate. However, they do show some resemblance to F. paleovariegata in shape, but differ in being symmetrical, except for F. champarense and F. praecurticeps .…”

Record of fossil leaves of Ziziphus and Lagerstroemia from Mahuadanr Valley, Jharkhand, India and their ecological implications

“…A good assemblage of taxa based on mega-and micro-fossils were recorded from Late Tertiary sediments exposed all along the Birha river and its tributary, Jhumari near Rajdanda Village of Mahuadanr Valley (Bande & Srivastava, 1990;Prakash et al,1988;Srivastava & Srivastava, 1998;Srivastava, 1998;Singh & Prasad, 2007, 2008, 2009Singh & Chauhan, 2008a, b). Further study based on the leaf impressions collected from same locality revealed the occurrence of two new taxa Ziziphus funiculosa and Lagerstroemia macrocarpa of the family Rhamnaceae and Lythraceae respectively which have been described and discussed in the present communication.…”