| Abstract Detail
Paleobotanical Section KAPGATE, DASHRATH [1]. Occurrence of Cocos like Palm Fruit from the Deccan Intertrappean Beds of Central INDIA. A monocotyledonous fossil fruit, belongs to the family Arecaceae (Palmae) has been recovered from the Deccan Intertrappean beds exposed at Mahurzari area, Nagpur district, Maharastra, Central India. It belongs to upper Cretaceous to lower Tertiary age. Up to some dicot woods, leaf impressions and a single fruit are reported from this locality. I have collected few monocot roots, stems, inflorescence and fruits from the same beds. The present fruit exposed longitudinally in black silicified chert. Serial peel sections are prepared by peel technique after etching the fruit by hydrofluoric acid. It is small fruit measures 1.1 mm broad and 1.9 mm in length. The fruit is single seeded, oval drup. The pericarp or fruit wall is well-preserved 0.3 mm thick differentiated into outer epicarp, middle thick fibrous mesocarp and inner hard endocarp. Epicarp shows thin layered, compactly arranged small rectangular cells. Mesocarp 0.2mm thick composed of the fibrous and fibrovascular bundles distributed in parenchyamatous ground tissue. Fibrovascular bundles have typical monocotyledonous structure. The fibrous bundles are scattered, consist of 15-25 polygonal fibrous cells. Endocarp is hard; consist of closed packed, thick walled scleroid cells. The lumen of the fruit encloses a single, large ill preserved seed. Tissue of Seed coat and central endosperm ill preserved forming a cavity. Earlier, the palm fruits described from the different Deccan Intertrappean localities by various workers, belongs to Coccoid, Arecoid and Borassoid groups. The characteristic features of the present fossil fruit show its similarity to genus Cocos. Hence it is named as Cocos mahurzarii sp. nov. The specific name of the present fruit is derived from the name of locality.
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1 - J. M. PATEL College, Post Graduate Department of Botany, Bhandara, Maharastra, 441904, India
Keywords:
fruit shape.
Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for BSA Sections
Session: P2
Location: Event Tent/Cliff Lodge
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: P2PB016
Abstract ID:371 |
