Some observations on pollen found in Indian Tertiary Lignites

Abstract

Attention is drawn to the occurrence of some similar types of pollen, spores and possible microthyriaceous remains in some of the Tertiary lignites of India like those of Palana, Warkalli and S. Arcot and in the Deccan Intertrappean Series. The pollen have been provisionally compared to the genera like Potamogeton, Betula, Fraxinus, Borassus, Tilia, Protea, Carya, Carpinus, Quercus and Schizaea which might well have been the common components of the different Tertiary floras of India. The Indian Tertiary vegetation thus included families like the Proteaceae, Juglandaceae, Tiliaceae, Palmae, Fraxineae, Betulaceae, Potamogetonaceae and Schizaeaceae, and was probably uniform. Some of the above-mentioned pollen and spore types and particularly the Mierothyriaceae occurring in Indian Tertiary lignites are also found in Australia. This fact not only points to the wide distribution of some genera during the Tertiary period but also indicates that the climate was also probably similar in these widely separated regions.