First record of a lauraceous wood from the Palaeogene sediments of western India

Abstract

A fossil wood of Lauraceae resembling those of the modern genera Cinnamomum Spreng. and Litsea Lam. is described from the Vagadkhol Formation of Bharuch District, Gujarat considered to be Palaeocene-Early Eocene in age. This is the first record of a fossil wood of this family from western India. In view of the meagre fossil records known from the Palaeogene sediments of western India, the present finding becomes important as it enriches the palaeofloristics. Its presence, along with the already described fossils indicates warm and humid conditions in the region during the depositional period in contrast to the present day dry climate.

A late Eocene wood assemblage from the Crooked River Basin, Oregon, USA

“…Of those, among the most important is the critical review and summary by Dupéron-Laudoueneix and Dupéron (2005). Subsequent publications describing Lauraceae woods include those by Boonchai and Manchester (2012), Franco (2012), Shukla et al (2013), Brea et al (2015), Franco et al (2015), Koutecký and Sakala (2015), Mantzouka et al (2016), Cevallos-Ferriz et al (2016, 2021, Jud and Dunham (2017), Estrada-Ruiz et al (2018), Huang et al (2018, Mantzouka (2018), Akkemik et al ( , 2021Güngör et al (2019), Parrott (2019), Pérez-Lara and Estrada-Ruiz (2019), Wheeler et al (2019), Ruiz et al (2020), andVasquez-Loranca andCevallos-Ferriz (2022). Lauraceae fossil woods are common and relatively diverse (seven species) in the nearby middle Eocene Clarno Nut Beds (Wheeler and Manchester 2002).…”