印度早始新世的果化石－Fossil fruits from Early Eocene Vastan

王祺

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 98, NO. 12, 25 JUNE 2010

Fossil fruits from Early Eocene Vastan
Lignite, Gujarat, India: taphonomic
and phytogeographic implications
H. Singh1, M. Prasad1, K. Kumar2,*, R. S. Rana3
and S. K. Singh1
1Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road,
Lucknow 226 007, India
2Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology,
33 General Mahadeo Singh Road, Dehradun 248 001, India
3Department of Geology, H.N.B. Garhwal University,
Srinagar 246 174, India
A small collection of fossil fruits of dicotyledonous
plants, having close affinity with modern taxa,
Ziziphus xylopyros Willd. (Rhamnaceae), Combretum
decandrum Roxb. and Terminalia chebula Retz. (Combretaceae)
and Lagerstroemia flos-reginae and Lagerstroemia
parviflora (Lythraceae) is reported from the
subsurface beds of the Cambay Shale Formation
exposed in an open-cast lignite mine at Vastan village
near Surat, western India. Well preserved fossilized
fruits have limited transport to burial histories from
their plant producers and therefore have great potential
to provide excellent data about the character of
forests such as the one that may have contributed to
the formation of the extensive Lower Eocene lignite
deposits of western India. The fossilized fruits from
Vastan are referred here to four new form species, viz.
Ziziphus eocenicus, Combretum vastanensis, Terminalia
cambaya and Lagerstroemia sahnii. The habitat and
present day distribution of extant comparable taxa
suggest the prevalence of tropical deciduous forest
with moisture-loving plants in the Vastan mine area
during the Early Eocene period. Such deciduous
forests presently occur in south Coimbatore, Palghat
and moister parts of Mysore region of southern India.
Keywords: Cambay Shale Formation, Early Eocene,
fossil fruits, Gujarat, Vastan Lignite Mine.

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倪子杰

图呢。。。。。