Palaeobotanical evidence of wildfire in the Upper Permian of India: Macroscopic charcoal remains from the Raniganj Formation, Damodar Basin

Abstract

Macroscopic fossil charcoal has been discovered in the carbonaceous shales associated with Seam-VI of Raniganj Formation, Upper Permian, Damodar Basin, India. A pycnoxylic gymnosperm wood is described and confirms the occurrence of palaeo-wildfire in this area during the Late Permian. The integration of the data presented in the current study with previously published data for the Raniganj Formation, principally related to the occurrence of (pyrogenic) inertinites within coal layers, demonstrates that palaeo-wildfires were common events during the deposition of the preserved material. In addition, the presence of charcoal in Permian sediments associated with coal levels at different Gondwana localities demonstrates that wildfires have been relatively common events across the continent during this period.