Aquilapollenites and other triprojectate pollen from the Late Cretaceous to Early Paleocene Deccan intertrappean deposits of India

Abstract

Palynological investigations of Deccan volcanic-associated intertrappean deposits of the Late Cretaceous–Early Paleocene of central and western India were carried out. The study shows the presence of abundant triprojectate pollen grains, particularly Aquilapollenites Rouse 1957, Jiangsupollis Song 1980 in Song et al. 1980 and Farabeipollis Nandi & Chattopadhyay 2002. The data on the triprojectate group from the Indian subcontinent shows that Aquilapollenites spp. were widely distributed in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) sediments, and Farabeipollis and Jiangsupollis are less common. The post-Cretaceous record of triprojectate pollen from the Indian subcontinent is poor, and only a few species of Aquilapollenites survived the Cretaceous–Paleocene transition.

Keywords:

• Deccan volcanism
• Late Cretaceous–Early Paleocene
• intertrappean
• triprojectate pollen

Acknowledgements

B. Samant thanks the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi (Grant No. 24/297/08-EMR-II) for financial assistance. The work carried out under a joint collaborative programme with the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Central Region. B. Samant thanks the Head, Postgraduate Department of Geology, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur, for providing working facilities. D. M. Mohabey gratefully acknowledges cooperation with the Deputy Director General GSI, Central Region, for carrying out this joint collaborative programme. K. N. Paudayal's work was made possible with the European Research visit to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, which enabled him to visit the Institute of Palaeontology, Vienna University, Austria, for the SEM investigation of some of the palynomorphs studied here.

Notes

IT = Intertrappean sediments