A New Petrified Bilocular Capsular Fruit Capsulocarpon mohgaonese gen. et sp.nov From The Deccan Intertrappean Beds of Mohgaonkalan, M.P., India

Abstract

A pale botanical study wholly and solely depend upon the presence of plant fossil. Fossils are the prehistoric remnants of plants and animal which were formed due to dead or decay of plant and animal or it can be called as any evidence of prehistoric life. They are the imprint of the nature present in the womb of earth. So, we can have remains of a whole organism or some part of the organisms. Also presence of fossils are restricted to a particular locality. In this paper a plant fossil is studied. After visiting and exploring various fossiliferous localities, the present fossil chert was collected from Mohagaonkalan area of Chhindwara District of Madhya Pradesh. This locality belonging to upper most cretaceous period. Through peel technique the present chert was analysed. On the basis of both morphological characters and anatomical characters the bilocular petrified fruit is described. The bilocular capsular fruit is sessile (i.e. without stalk) & shows dicotyledonous in nature. The whole fruit is separated by single transverse septa and giving the ‘8’ shaped structure to the fruit. Each locule possess single prominent seed and showing loculicidal dehiscence. The upper locule is smaller and the lower locule is bigger in size. The whole fruit measures 2250µm in length and 2750µm in breadth. The fruit is then compared with earlier reported bilocular capsular fruit and also with the fruits of modern living families.