Early Eocene Annona Fossils from Vastan Lignite Mine, Surat District, Gujarat, India: Age, Origin and Palaeogeographic Significance

The family Annonaceae has Gondwanan affinity and is being reported from the Cambay Shale of Vastan Lignite Mine on the basis of well-preserved fruit (in counterpart), leaf and pollen grains. This finding is significant because it serves as yet another example of an angiosperm family found in South America and Africa that may have boarded the Indian raft when India was attached to Madagascar, reported on the basis of pollen from Kutch. The Vastan occurrences represent a continuous record from the Indian latest Cretaceous, through the Palaeocene, based on multiple vegetative entities. The well-preserved fruit is morphologically similar to Annona palustris L. At present the dispersal history of the family into India represents an origin in the Lower Cretaceous of North America with later dispersal to South America and Africa and then onto India, as it is recorded from the sedimentary beds associated with the Deccan Volcanics. Another angiosperm family, Dipterocarpaceae, is also found in Vastan, with a similar phytogeographic distribution.