A fossil wood of Gynocardia from the Valia Lignite Mine, Bharuch District, Gujarat

Abstract

The Valia Lignite Mine situated near Bharuch (Gujarat) is poorly explored as far as the animal and plant remains are concerned. In order to explore the mine for building the palaeofloristics and reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment, a few wood pieces were collected from there. Subsurface beds of the early Eocene (Cambay Shale Formation) age are exposed in this open cast mine. A new fossil wood, Gynocardia eocenica sp. nov., of the Achariaceae is described for the first time from there. Gynocardia is monotypic and found in evergreen rain forests of northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. The occurrence of present fossil indicates that the genus was originated in India during the early Eocene when the climatic conditions were warm and humid. Later on, it became extinct from western India due to the presence of arid to semiarid conditions and confined to northeast India having the equable climate.