Fossil wood of Gmelina Linn. (Verbenaceae) from the Deccan Intertrappean beds of Nawargaon with comments on the nomenclature of Tertiary woods

Abstract

A fossil dicotyledonous wood collected from the Deccan Intertrapean beds of Nawargaon, District Wardha, Maharashtra has been described. It has been assigned to the extant genus Gmelina Linn. Of Verbenaceae and has been described as a new species Gmelina tertiara. This is the first authentic record of the family Verbenaceae from the Deccan Intertrappean beds, which extends the antiquity of this family to the Palaeogene in the Indian Subcontinent. The problem of the nomenclature of Tertiary fossil woods has also been discussed.
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Additional features of Aristolochioxylon prakashii Kulkarni & Patil from Nawargaon Intertrappeans, Maharashtra

“…T HE Deccan Intertrappean beds exposed in Nawargaon-Maragsur area (21 0 0 I' North; 78 0 35' East), Wardha District, Maharashtra are rich in angiospemllc remains. A nwnber ofdicotyledonous fossil woods have already been described from this area showing their close affinities with extant genera (Bande, 1986;Bande & Prakash, 1984;Bande & Srivastava, 1995;Bande et aI., 1986;Bonde, 1997;Khare et aI., 2000;Kulkarni & Patil, 1977;Shete & Kulkarni, 1982). Family Aristolochiaceae has a meagre fossil record, so far only one fossil wood Aristo loch ioxylon prakashii Kulkarni & Patil (1977) has been described.…”

Fossil dicotyledonous liana Anamirta pfeifferi sp. nov. (Menispermaceae) from the Deccan Intertrappean beds of India

“…, Gmeltna terttara Bande 1986 and paraphyllanthoxylon palaeoembltca Prakash et al 1986 are the dicotyledonous woods and Unonaspermum cornert Bonde 1993, an anonaceous seed, described from these beds. In addition to these, number of monocotyledonous plants have been reported from these beds (Bonde, 1995).…”