1991-92 - Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany

1991-92An infructcscence Callisremonites indicum, described from Shapura, MandlaDistrict, has been reinvestigated. It shows all the morphological characters ofMusa cardiosperma, a seeded fossil banana fruit which is already known fromMohgaonkalan chert, but not of Callistemon (bOll Ie brush) of the familyMyrtaceae.M.B. Bande, R.C. Mehrotra and N. AwasthiProgramme 3.2Objective,Studies on the Tertiary noras of western India,To build up f/oristic history and phytogeography ofwestern IndiaAbout25 fossil woods from the Upper Tertiary sediments of western India werestudied. The taxa identified are: Lagerstroemia, Millettia-Pongamia, Terminalia,Hopea, ZiziphllS, and Chlorophora. Occurrence of Hopea in southern Gujarat is afurther evidence of widespread of Dipterocarpaceae in India until Late Tertiary.The genus Chlorophora of the family Moraceae, a typical African genus, has beenrecorded for the first time in the Indian Neogene flora. Identification of the fossilwoods from the Intertrappean beds of Kutch has been completed.J.S.GuleriaI'rogramme 3.3 : Palynostratigraphy and palaeonoristics of thel\fesozoic~Tertiary sediments in Rajasthan RasinObjective,To establish palynological succession in the Cretaceous-Tertiary sequences: To deduce palaeoenvironmentQualitative and quantitative analyses of the palynoflora recovered from subsurfacesedimcnts drillcd near Kapurdi and Jalipa, Barmer District, Rajasthandenote that the lowcr and upper parts of the bore-hole sequences near Kapurdi arecharacterised by the dominance of pteridophylic spores and angiospermic pollenrespectively. The 101' part shows almost equal representation of pteridophylie andangiospermic elements. It is inferred Ihatthe lower part of this sequence witnesseda short phase of marine transgression as is evidenced by the presence of dinoflagellatecysts. The spore/pollen assemblages are comparable 10 those of Kutch Basinand conlain Palaeocene-Eocene marker taxa. like Dandotiaspora, Proxapertites,Lakiapollis, Tricolporopollis, Matanomadh iasillcites, Spinizonocolpites,Neocouperipollis and Kielmeyerapollenites.Programme 3.4ObjectiveS.K.M.,Neogene plant megafossils of West CoastTripathi: To study morphotaxonomy of plant megafossils,palaeof/oristics, palaeoecology and palaeogeographyLeaf-impressions resembling those of Calophyllum, Gluta, Cinnamomllm­Lilsea collected from Yarkala CliffSeclion (Warkalli beds) have been studied. Thofruits collectcd from Yarkala Cliff Section and Payangadi clay mine have beenstudied. One apparently looks like a 2-seeded fabaceous pod and the other triloc-23