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Fossil Wood of Subfamily Detarioideae (family Fabaceae) from the Paleogene of the Indian Subcontinent: Origin and Palaeo-dispersal Pathways

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Journal of the Geological Society of India

Abstract

A new fossil wood of Hopeoxylon i.e. H. umarsarensis sp. nov. showing close resemblance with the modern wood of Sindora/Copaifera of the subfamily Detarioideae (family Fabaceae) is described from the Umarsar lignite mine of Kutch basin, Gujarat that belongs to the Naredi Formation of the early Eocene age. Detarioideae is one of the reinstated subfamilies of the Fabaceae with diversity much higher in tropical Africa than in South America or Asia. The relics of this subfamily are known from the Paleocene onwards from various horizons of America, Africa, Europe, India and Southeast Asia. This is the oldest fossil record of the genus Sindora/Copaifera which contributes towards the understanding of the origin and palaeo-dispersal pathways of this early-diverging subfamily within the early branching Fabaceae.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow for the permission to publish this work. Thanks are also due to Mr. H.O. Selvanayagam, General Manager of Umarsar liginte mine (GMDC), Ahmadabad for his kind support during the collection of the fossil material. H.S. expresses sincere gratitude to the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi for providing the DST sponsored project for financial support (Project No. EEQ/2016/000112). We are grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his fruitful suggestions.

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  1. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow, 226 007, India

    Anumeha Shukla, Hukam Singh & R. C. Mehrotra

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Shukla, A., Singh, H. & Mehrotra, R.C. Fossil Wood of Subfamily Detarioideae (family Fabaceae) from the Paleogene of the Indian Subcontinent: Origin and Palaeo-dispersal Pathways. J Geol Soc India 94, 411–415 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-019-1329-z

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