RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Autochthonous deposition of Indian
coal beds with palaeobotanical
evidences of in situ plants from
Saharjuri Basin, Jharkhand
Manju Banerjee
Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, 35,
Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700 019, India
In situ Glossopteris plants on Vertebraria root, in situ
Glossopteris seedlings, i.e. Deogharia and the first report
of Annularia leafy shoots emerging from upright axes are
recorded from the coal-bearing Late–Early Permian
(Barakar Formation) sediments of Saharjuri Basin,
Lower Gondwana. Besides, root beds, upright Vertebraria root, and Diphyllopteris seedlings are recorded
from other Lower Gondwana coal fields. All evidences are
considered to suggest autochthonous origin of the respective coal beds of the Indian Lower Gondwana basins.
THE in situ stigmarian roots and frequent occurrences of
vertically preserved plant axes within the coal seams have
identified the autochthonous origin of the Euramerian
Carboniferous coal beds. Pioneer coal geologists of India1,2
suggested allochthonous deposition of the Indian coal beds,
because they could not find any record of occurrence of erect
stems with attached roots suggestive of position of growth
and also roots in the floors of the coal seams. In the midtwentieth century, Ahmad3 advocated the view of autochthonous origin of Indian coal beds through accumulation of
data on isopach analysis of Indian coal basins. However,
Niyogi4 first utilized the evidence of upright stems, and roots
of plants from Damagara quarry, Saharjuri Basin to suggest in
situ preservation of coal beds, contrary to the widely accepted view of allochthonous depositional character of Indian
coal beds. Subsequently, occurrences of root beds in the
floor of the coal seams were reported from Daltonganj coal
field5,6 and Jharia, Wardha valley coal fields7, supporting the
in situ origin of the coal beds.
Banerjee et al.8 recorded from the Late Early Permian
sediments, Barakar Formation, Saharjuri Basin, Jharkhand
(Figure 1 a, b), for the first time, upright axes with branches
bearing Glossopteris leaves occurring at right angles to the
bedding plane on vertically preserved Vertebraria root with
spreading branches (Figure 2 a). The upright axes, stems on
roots occur below the coal-bearing layer or carbonaceous
shale layer crowded with Glossopteris leaves (Figures 1 b,
2 a–e). So far, more than 50 upright axes with branches with
or without attached Glossopteris leaves have been recorded
in the basin and photographed. Only four specimens, viz.
ScTd 380 and 380a, ScTd 385, ScTd 389 and ScTd.430
could be collected so far. All the specimens are preserved
in the Repository of Palaeobotany–Palynology Laboratory,
e-mail: [email protected]
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 88, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2005
Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, Kolkata. Plants
growing in situ on roots exposed during exploration could
not be collected, but were photographed. One of these
photographed complete plants is considered as the first
evidence of the upright Glossopteris plant (Figure 2 a). The
plants occur in situ in the sandy shale layer below coaly shale
layer with the much carbonized branches bearing leaves.
Specimen no. ScTd 380 with counterpart 380a of the surface
layer (Figure 2 b, bi and d) is the best specimen of upright
Glossopteris plant so far collected. Salient features of the
upright Glossopteris plant from study of field specimens
and collected specimens with a brief description are enumerated.
The in situ upright axes stand erect at right angles or
slightly inclined to the bedding plane, and arise from the in
situ vertically preserved Vertebraria roots with horizontally
spreading branches. The specimens of incomplete axes measured in the field exceed 2 m in height. The complete specimen
studied in the field is 18 cm long and 5 cm wide (Figure 2 a).
The smallest specimen of incomplete axis is 10 cm; the axes
vary in width between 3.5 and 10 cm. Morphographic features
of the erect stems reveal a three-dimensional cylindrical
feature; 2–5 cm thick from the central core to periphery;
the central portion of the axes highly carbonized and composed of bright, shiny, square blocks of vitrain fragments.
The vitrain-rich layer penetrates deep into the core of the
stem, suggesting occurrence of a small pith as in the pycnoxylic wood-bearing plants. The diameter of the axes from
surface is 4–10 cm, becomes wider at the upper portion where
the axis is branched; the uppermost portion of the preserved axes is 6–9 cm wide; branches come out from the main
axis and are preserved on the horizontal surface. The roots
bearing the axis are thick in the complete specimen (Figure
2 a); it is 7 cm wide at the base. The central part of the root
and the elongated branches show Vertebraria-like blocks.
The branches measure 10–20 cm in length and 1.5–2.5 cm
in the widest part. Leaves occur frequently scattered on the
shale surface (Figure 2 e). The 13.5-cm incomplete upright
plant of specimen no. ScTd 380 stands erect at one side of
a 75.5 cm × 19.5 cm × 13.5 cm rock (Figure 2 b and bi).
Two to three thicker branches emerge from the upright axes
at different levels; the thicker branches are about 1.5–2.5 cm
broad and the incomplete length of the branches preserved
on the horizontal sandy shale surface ranges from 12 to
23 cm. Glossopteris leaves (8–12 cm × 2–4 cm) are attached
by a short petiole (2–3 mm × 1.5 mm) to the thinner branches
in alternate phyllotaxy (Figure 2 d). Detailed morphographic
features of the leaves analysed according to the methodology
of Banerjee9 closely compare with the lectotype of Glossopteris communis (Feistm) Banerjee9.
The rock bearing the erect plant shows around the upright
axes laminations of carbonaceous shale, claystone, siltstone,
sandy shale and sandstone layers; the laminations occur
mostly as lenticular layers (Figure 2 b and bi); the opposite
side of the rock shows clearly the lenticular depositional
characteristics of the sediments (Figure 2i).
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a
b
Figure 1. a, Geological map of Saharjuri Basin showing study area. b, Litholog of the exposed section showing position of fossils. Equisetalean fertile shoots: Tuls., Tulsidabaria; Sharmastachys; Rajm., Rajmahaliastachuys; Gl. Seedl.
In addition to the in situ plants, vertically preserved
Vertebraria roots are also recorded in the bore core samples
of the basin8 (Figure 2 j).
Prior to the report of actual evidences of in situ upright
Glossopteris plants on Vertebraria roots8, reconstruction
of the Glossopteris plant was proposed by Gould and Delevoryas10, based on the isolated records of petrified trunks
with branches, associated isolated Glossopteris leaves, pollenbearing organs, seed-bearing fertile organs, roots, etc. The
actual in situ plants of the Saharjuri Basin (Figures 2 a, b, bi
and c) show similarity to the reconstruction proposed on
the specimens of Vereeniging, South Africa10.
The record of several in situ vertically preserved seedlings
of Glossopteris, viz. Deogharia nautiyalii Banerjee11 from
the same sedimentary succession with upright Glossopteris
plants in the basin, is an additional important data on the in
situ deposition of sediments of the Saharjuri Basin. Each
seedling (Figure 2f) with in situ axis shows a pair of thick,
petiolate cotyledonary leaves opposite to each other, almost
oval in shape and a pair of Glossopteris leaves at slightly
upper level in opposite decussate arrangement. The Glosopteris leaves are petiolate, oblanceolate in shape with obtuse
to sub-acute apices, margin entire, mid-vein distinct, venation
dichotomoreticulate, forming elongate, polygonal, mediumsize meshes.
Recent record of the occurrence of well-preserved, calamitalean leafy shoots of Annularia crassiscula attached to
branches coming out from upright, thick axis preserved
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vertically across the bedding plane in the Late–Early Permian
sediments (Figures 1 b and 2 g, h) is yet another evidence
supporting in situ deposition of the coal beds of Saharjuri
Basin. This is the first record of calamitalean leafy shoot, a
common member of the Late Palaeozoic Euramerian flora in
the Late–Early Permian Gondwana sediments of Peninsular
India. Earlier, a fertile shoot Rajmahaliastachys elongata
Banerjee & D’Rozario12, similar to the Euramerian calamitalean fertile shoot, was described from the same horizon
as that of Annularia. The occurrences of these equisetalean
members considered as equatorial elements of Euramerian
phytochoria Meyen13, including the first record of upright
axis with foliage shoot of Annularia in the Glossopteris
floral assemblage of in situ Glossopteris plant and seedlings
of Glossopteris in the Peninsular Indian Lower Gondwana
deposits, have great impact on the environment of deposition
of Indian coal beds.
The Saharjuri Basin, from where the unique assemblage
of in situ plants have been collected, is a small (30 sq km2)
crescent-shaped basin (Figure 1 a) belonging to Deoghar
Group of coal fields, lying in an angular alignment between
Damodar Valley and Rajmahal group of coal fields in the
eastern part of India (24°05′N–24°15′N lat 86°47′E–
86°57′E long). The geology of the basin has been studied
by several workers4,14–16, Eastern Coalfields Ltd (unpublished
report). The latest known geological succession of the basin
is given in Table 1. The in situ Glossopteris plants on
Vertebraria roots, Deogharia seedlings and Annularia
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 88, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2005
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
bi
a
h
f
b
j
g
c
d
e
Figure 2. a, Upright Glossopteris plant on Vertebraria root with spreading branches. First evidence of in situ Glossopteris plant photographed in
the field. *b, Upright axis with branches preserved at one side of a rock. The rock shows laminated sedimentary layers. Sp. no. ScTd 380. *bi,
Closer view of erect axis with branches clearly showing the sedimentary layers. Sp. no. ScTd 380. c, Upright axis with branches bearing Glossopteris leaves photographed in the field. *d, Counterpart Sp. no. ScTd 380a, top layer of Sp. no. ScTd 380 with branches bearing Glossopteris leaves
cf G. communis attached by short petiole. e, Top layer of (c) with many Glossopteris leaves cf G. communis. *f, Deogharia nautiyalii Banerjee
seedling showing vertically preserved axis, cotyledons, Glossopteris leaves. Specimen no. ScTd378. g, Annularia crassiscula foliage shoots (S)
emerging from vertically preserved axis (A). *h, A portion of the leafy shoot of A. crassiscula showing branching pattern, leaf whorls at the nodes
and leaf characters. Specimen no. ScTd 450. *i, Opposite side of the Sp. no. ScTd 380 showing laminated layers of shale, sand stone; laminations
occur mostly as lenticular layers. *j, Vertically preserved Vertebraria root recorded from bore core sample of Saharjuri Basin. Sp no. ScTd. 224.
*Specimen kept in the Repository of Palaeobotany–Palynology laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, Kolkata.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 88, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2005
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Table 1. Generalized geology and stratigraphic succession of coal
seams in Saharjuri Basin, Jharkhand (based on Datta et al.15, Pareek et al.16
and Coal India–Eastern Coalfields Ltd, unpublished data)
Age
Recent
Cretaceous
E
A
R
L
Y
P
E
R
M
I
A
N
Formation
Coal horizon no.
Coal seam
–
–
B
A
R
A
K
A
R
–
–
XIV
XIII
XII
XI
X
IX
–
–
Damagara Top
Damagara Bottom
Tulsidabar Top
Tulsidabar Bottom
Bhabanipur Top
Bhabanipur Bottom
K
A
R
H
A
R
B
A
R
I
VIII
VII
VI
V
IV
III
II
I
Chitra Top
Chitra Bottom
Colony Top
Colony Middle
Colony Bottom
Colony Basal
Saharjuri Top
Saharjuri Bottom
Talchir
Unconformity
–
–
Precambrian
foliage shoots on upright carbonized axes occur in the shale,
silt stone, sandstone partings between the coal horizons of
Barakar Formation, Late–Early Permian sediments in the
Tulsidabar quarry of the basin (Figure 1 a and b).
Occurrences of vertically preserved Vertebraria roots
have also been reported from Ib river coalfield17 and Auranga
coalfield18. Vertically preserved seedlings, Diphyllopteris
(Srivastava18, Pant & Nautiyal19) is also recorded from
Auranga coalfield.
There are reports of in situ occurrences of Glossopteris
forest from other Lower Gondwana continents. Occurrence
of in situ petrified roots in the South African Gondwana
sediments has been recorded20. Taylor et al.21 described an
in situ fossil forest with permineralized trunks in association with Glossopteris leaves from Upper Permian of
Antarctica.
The present records of in situ Glossopteris plants on
Vertebraria root, Deogharia seedlings and the upright axes
with Annularia leafy shoots from the Late–Early Permian
(Barakar Formation) sediments of Saharjuri Basin and records
of root beds, upright Vertebraria root, Diphyllopteris seedlings from other Lower Gondwana coalfields strongly suggest
autochthonous origin of the respective coal beds of the Indian
Lower Gondwana Basins.
1. Fox, C. S., The Gondwana system and related formations. Mem.
Geol. Surv. India, 1931, 58, 1–241.
2. Gee, E. R., The geology and coal resources of the Raniganj coal
field. Mem.Geol. Surv. India, 1932, 61, 1–343.
3. Ahmad, F., Palaeogeography of the Gondwana period in Gondwanaland, with special reference to India and Australia and its
bearing on the theory of continental drift. Mem. Geol. Surv. India,
1961, 90.
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4. Niyogi, D., Lower Gondwana sedimentation in Saharjuri coal field,
Bihar, India. J. Sed. Petrol., 1966, 36, 960–972.
5. Chaudhuri, S., Root beds and palaeoenvironment in Daltonganj
coalfield – A preliminary study. J. Geol. Soc. India, 1985, 26,
345–349.
6. Manjrekar, V. D., Bandyopadhyay, D. N. and Ghosh, A., Environmental interpretation from facies analysis and root bearing
beds of Lower Gondwana sediments from Meral sub-basin of the
Daltonganj coal field, Bihar. Geophytology, 1986, 16, 145–152.
7. Chandra, S., Rootlet beds in the floor of Gondwana coal in India.
Indian J. Geol., 1989, 61, 30–40.
8. Banerjee, M., Basu, M., Halder, A. and Hait, A., In situ Glossopteris plant with branched stems and spreading roots from Saharjuri
coal field, Indian Lower Gondwana. Indian Biol., 1991, 23, 1–7.
9. Banerjee, M., Genus Glossopteris Brongniart and its stratigraphic
significance in the palaeozoics of India. Part I A revisional study
of some species of the genus Glossopteris. Bull. Bot. Soc. Bengal,
1978, 32, 81–125.
10. Gould, R. E. and Delevoryas, T., The biology of Glossopteris:
Evidence from petrified seed-bearing and pollen-bearing organs.
Alcheringa, 1977, 1, 387–399.
11. Banerjee, M., Deogharia nautiyalii gen et sp. nov. in situ seedling
of Glossopteris plant from Early Permian of Saharjuri Basin, Indian
Lower Gondwana unlike Diphyllopteris verticillata (Srivastava)
Pant and Nautiyal seedling. In Recent Trends in Botanical Researches, Professor D. D. Nautiyal Commem. vol. (ed. Chauhan, D.
K.), Allahabad, 2000, pp. 157–164.
12. Banerjee, M. and D’Rozario, A., Sharmastachys, Rajmahaliastachys and Tulsidabaria Banerjee & D’Rozario, three new equisetalean fertile shoots from Late–Early Permian sediments of India.
Geosci. J., 1999, 20, 25–34.
13. Meyen, S. V., Fundamentals of Palaeobotany, Chapman and Hall,
1987, pp. 1–415.
14. Hughes, T. W. H., The Deoghar coalfields. Mem. Geol. Surv. India,
1870, 7, 247–255.
15. Datta, N. R., Mukherjee, K. N., Das, A. K. and Mukherjee, A. K.,
A reappraisal of stratigraphy and economic potentiality of Saharjuri coal basin, Santhal Parganas district, Bihar. Trans. Geol. Metall. Inst. India, 1983, 80, 1–19.
16. Pareek, H. S., Bardhan, B. and Chakraborty, N. C., Seam sedimentary cycle, sedimentary petrography of bore hole core sample of Damuda (L. Permian) group, and petrography of the coal seams,
Saharjuri coal field, District, Santhal Pargana, Bihar, India. Rec.
Geol. Surv. India, 1988, 118, 9–32.
17. Singh, K. J. and Chandra, S., In situ preserved Vertebraria axes in
Ib river coalfield, India. Curr. Sci., 1995, 69, 228–229.
18. Srivastava, A. K., Nature and preservation of Vertebraria axes in
the Lower Gondwana beds of India. Acta Palaeobot., 1995, 35,
189–193.
19. Pant, D. D. and Nautiyal, D. D., Diphyllopteris verticillata Srivastava, the probable seedling from palaeozoic of India. Rev.
Palaeobot. Palynol., 1987, 51, 31–36.
20. Chandra, D. and Taylor, G. H., Gondwana coals. In Stach’s Text
Book of Coal Petrology (ed. Stach et al.), Gebrüder Borntraeger,
Berlin, Stuttgart, 1982, pp. 177–197.
21. Taylor, E. L., Taylor, T. N. and Cuneo, R. N., The present is not
key to the past: A polar forest from the Permian of Antarctica.
Science, 1992, 257, 1675–1677.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. M.B. acknowledges financial assistance
from Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi and Ministry
of Steel and Mines, Govt. of India. Thanks are due to the authorities
and officers of Coal India Ltd, Kolkata, officers of the Eastern Coalfields Ltd, Asansol, the General Managers and their colleagues at Chitra
Colliery for help and cooperation during field tours.
Received 28 July 2004; revised accepted 2 December 2004
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 88, NO. 9, 10 MAY 2005