New fossil Coniferous woods from the Rajmahal Hills, Bihar, India

Abstract

Three Jurassic conifer woods from the Rajmahal hills, Bihar are described as Circoporoxylon amarjolense n. sp., Dadoxylon agathioides n. sp., and Taxaceoxylon n. gen. Taxaceoxylon sp. cf. rajmahalense (BHARDWAJ) Krausel & Jain.

A key to morphogenera used for Mesozoic conifer-like woods

“…This name was quoted several times (e.g. Müller-Stoll, 1951;Boureau, 1956;Schultze-Motel, 1956) before it was typified by Kräusel and Jain (1964).…”

“…Glyptostroboxylon Conwentz (Natschokin, 1962: 290) -An intricate case, this genus has two syntypes (Conwentz, 1885). Andrews (1955) did the first lectotypification but at the same time elected the same species as lectotype for Circoporoxylon Kräusel (an error he repeated in 1970, deliberately ignoring the lectotypification of Circoporoxylon by Kräusel and Jain in 1964). Andrew's choice, based on an automatic method (first species cited) may be superseded (ICBN, art.…”

“…Taxoxylon Unger (Unger, 1859: 231) -In the protologue (1842) Unger used the spelling "Taxoxylum" which can be considered as an orthographic variant, even more so since in 1850 Unger switched to the modern spelling. According to Kräusel and Jain (1964) the specimen on which rests the type species of Taxoxylon Unger is a poorly preserved tracheidoxyl with resin canals. Unger's collection, in Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, has, under numbers 8765 and 8766 two slides labelled T. goeppertii, but without evidence that these are from type specimen.…”

Conifer Woods of the Middle Jurassic Hojedk Formation (Kerman Basin) Central Iran

“…17; cf. Kräusel & Jain 1964) or cell wall cavities associated with compression wood. Intertracheary radial wall pits (Fig.…”

Some fossil wood from the Jurassic of Rajmahal Hills, Bihar, India

“…In 1957 Sah assigned some specimens from Amarjola to Coniferocaulon Fliche on the basis of their external and anatomical characters. 1{ecently Krausel & Jain (1964) have reported a new coniferous genus Circoporoxylon, and one species of Dadoxylon from Amarjola and Mandro.…”