Record of plant fossils from freshly discovered succession of the Pariwar Formation, Jaisalmer Basin, western India

ABSTRACT

This research paper underscores the systematic study of the two species Ptilophyllum cutchense (Morris) Bose and Kasat and Ptilophyllum acutifolium (Morris) Bose and Kasat of the genus Ptilophyllum Morris. These species of the bennettitalean flora have been recorded for the first time from a newly discovered fossiliferous sedimentary succession of the Pariwar Formation cropping out near Serawa Village located at about 2 km west of Sanu Village of the Jaisalmer Basin. The investigated Serawa Section entails extremely rich record of undiversified bennettitalean flora. The Ptilophyllum cutchense of this studied succession also presents its first record from the Pariwar Formation of the Jaisalmer Basin. Ribbed axes are also described in this section. The floral record from the exposure near Serawa Village has been found somewhat different from the floral records made by earlier workers from the other known localities of the Pariwar Formation. The presence of leaf impressions, calcareous nannofossils and bioturbations in the successive horizons of the studied succession indicates the presence of shallow marine condition at the time of deposition of the rock unit under present endeavour.

KEYWORDS:

• Palaeobotany
• bennettitales
• Early Cretaceous
• Jaisalmer
• India

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Vandana Prasad, Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India for providing infrastructure facilities and permission to publish the paper (Publication No. 60/2020-21). Dr. Jyotsana Rai and Dr. Neeru Prakash of BSIP are also thanked for various help during fieldwork. The authors (ND and RK) are also very much thankful to Department of Science and Technology (DST No: SB/EMEQ–161/2014 (SERB), New Delhi for funding the research work. KK and DB are thankful to the Additonal Director General and HOD, Geological Survey of India, Western Region, Jaipur for providing departmental facilities. We are also grateful to esteemed reviewers for their critical evaluations and providing helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board [SB/EMEQ 161/2014].