The Pa!aeobotanist, 26(3): 214-220, 1980.
STRATIGRAPHICAL BEARING OF MEGAFLORA IN THE LOWER GONDWANA SUCCESSION OF AURANGA
COALFIELD, BIHAR
A. K. SRIVASTAVA
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow-226 007, India
ABSTRACT
The stratigraphical bearing of the various types of megafossils of the Karharbari, Barakar and Raniganj measures of the Lower Gondwana successIon of Auranga Coalfield has been dealt in detail and the comparisons have also been made wIth the well known floras of equivalent horizons of India.
Key-words - Stratigraphy, Megaflora, Lower Gondwana, Bihar (India).
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RECENT
of the Lower Gondwanapalaeobotanical investigationssediments of Auranga Coalfield have yielded enough evidence for assigning the different Lower Gondwana beds of Auranga Coalfield. The finding also supports the presence of some other horizons in the Auranga coalfield (Lele 1& Srivastava, 1977a, b, 1979;Srivastava, 1977a, b, 1978, 1979) which were hitherto unknown from this area on geo- logical ground (Rizvi, 1972).
The Lower Gondwana sediments of Au- ranga Coalfield have earlier been investi- gated by Feistmantel, 1881a, b, 1882, 1886;
Bhattacharyya, 1959; Bhattacharyya, 1963
&
Maithy, 1971. They have recorded the plant fossils from the Barakar and Raniganj stages.
MATERIAL
The material for the present study was collected from 5 different spots of the Lower
214
Gondwana succession of Auranga Coalfield (see Map 1, FI-F5).
F I - Section exposed in a quarry about 2 km west-south of West bank of Auranga River about 2 km, north- west of Churia.
Fossils are found as impressions on thinly laminated white to grey fire clay. There are some brown colour bands due to l~aching of iron.
F 2 - S;:ction exposed in north-east bank of Auranga River about 1 km west of Gowa Village where Gowa Nala joins the river.
Fossils are found as impressions on the ferruginous sandy and fire clay shales. There are some red bands due to leaching of iron.
F 3 - Section exposed in west bank of Auranga River about 0.5 km north- west of village Jalimkhurd.
Fossils are found on clayey shale.
F 4 - Section exposed in a small nala cutting in north-west bank of Sukri
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Map 1- Geological map of Auranga Coalfield, Palamau District, Bihar.
River and about 2.5 km north-west of Rajbar Village.
Fossils are found as impressions on the dark brown highly sandy, micaceous shale.
F 5 - Section exposed in a small nala, about 0.5 km north-west of Kamandi h Village.
Fossils are found as impressions on the weathered fire clay shale.
FLORISTIC COMPARISON AND DISCUSSION
KARHARBARI STAGE
The flora equivalent to this stage has been recovered from the locality no. F 1 and F 5.
The flora is represented by the presence
ofNeomariopteris hughesii, Gangamopteris cyclopteroides,
G.clarkeana, Glossopteris communis,
G.damudica, Euryphyllum whitti- anum, Noeggerathiopsis densinervis, Sama- ropsis ganjrensis and Vertebraria indica (Table 1).
Gangamopteris and Noeggerathiopsis are found to be the dominant constituents of the assemblage but at the same time flora is well
represented by Glossopteris, Euryphyllum, Neomariopteris and the gymnospermic seeds.
The Karharbari plant fossils have been studied in detail from the type area, i.e.
Giridih Coalfield (Feistmantel, 1879; Maithy, 1965a-d, 1970) and from the Ganjra Nala beds (Lele & Maithy, 1969; Maithy, 1968;
Saksena, 1955, 1963), South Karanpura Coalfield (Kulkarni, 1971) and Jayanti Coal- field (Lele & Maithy, 1966; Lele & Makada, 1974). All these assemblages show the predominance of Gangamopteris and Noeg- gerathiopsis along with characteristic forms of Buriadia and Gondwanidium.
The present assemblage does not record the occurrence of Buriadia and Gondwani- dium. However, their apparent absence does not alter the strong Karharbari aspect of the flora. The oVerlying Barakar assemblage is dominated by Glossopteris and Gangamo- pteris. Noeggerathiopsis and gymnospermic
seeds are uncommon in the Barakar Flora and Euryphyllum is altogether absent.
BARAKAR STAGE
The Barakar plant fossils have been
collected from the locality no. F 2 (see
Map 1).
THE PALAEOBOTANIST
~~ I
STAGES KARHAriBARI I BARAKAR
MEGAFOSSILS
Gangamopterls cyclopteroides G. clarkeana
Noeggerathiopsis densin<Zrvis Euryphyllum whittionum Samaropsis gonjrensls Glossopteris damudico Neomariopteris hughesii Glossopteris com mun is Vertebra r io i nd ica Glossopteris churiensis G. fuchsil
G. cf. ampla G. pandurata G. barakarensis G. intermittens
Trigonosquama Indica Ottokaria blhorensis Neomoriopterls borakorensis Dlphyllopteris vertic illata Glossopteris indica
; G. browniana G. conspicua
I G. leptoneura G.decipiens G. cf. nidpurensis G. fusa
G. retiferd G. stricta G. diverg.zns Glossopteris sp.
Plumstead ia lancli:ola ta Scale leaf
1
RANIGANJ
Table 1 - Stratigraphic occurrence of megafossil genera and species in the Lower Gondwana stages of the Auranga Coalfield, Bihar.
The narrow mesh species of Glossopteris, viz., G. indica, G. communis, G. leptoneura, G.
sp. cf.
G. intermittens, G. barakarensis, G. juchsii, G. pandurata are dominant in the Barakar assemblag;;: of the Auranga Coal- fidd. The sterile and fertile fronds of Neomariopteris are also conuuon. The open mesh species like G. conspicua, G. sp. cf.G. ampla, G. browniana and G. churiensis are less frequent. Oftokaria, Diphyllopteris, scale leaves and Vertebraria are' also r~ported by one species each (Table'1).
The Barakar plant fossils have been described in detail by Feistmantel (1881a) and Kulkarni (1971) from the Auranga and South Karanpura Coalfield, Bihar. It has
been obserwd that their assemblages are represented by the pres,~nce of narrow mesh species of Glossopteris, viz., G. communis, G. indica, G. angusti/olia, G. communis var.
stenoneura, G. intermittens, G. stricta, G.
barakarensis and G. spathulocordata and the op;::n mesh forms of Glossopteris are less frequent.
The present assemblage is also dominated by the narrow mesh forms of Glossopteris.
Maithy (1974a, b) has observed the stratigraphical significance of the Lower Gondwana plants and synthesiz~d that the Barakar flora is dominated by the narrow mesh species of Glossopteris and the open mesh forms are less frequent. A perusal of the earlier Barakar flora demonstrates that Maithy's observation is quite CJn- vincing and it can be utiliz.::d in identifying the Barakar flora. Accordingly, the present flora has been assigned to the Barakar as was done by Maithy (1971) on the basis of narrow mesh forms of Glossopteris.
Shah, Singh and Sastry (1971) have considered Barakaria dichotoma and Walko- mie!la indica zone for the Barakar Stage.
Evidently these fossils are not found in all the Barakar b.::ds. They are reported only from the Auranga Coalfield (not recovered in the present assemblage) and West Bokaro Coalfield respectively and their value as markers remains very controversial and such zone, i.e. Barakaria dichotoma and
Walkomiella indica should not be considered for all the Barakar Flora.
BARREN MEASURES STAGE
Well preserved megafossils have not been recovered from this stage but good palyno- logical assemblages equivalent to Barren Measures have been recovered (Lele
&
Srivastava, 1977b) and their stratigraphical significance has been discussed in detail elsewhere (Lele & Srivastava, 1979).
RANIGANJ STAGE
The locality no. F 3 and F 4 have yielded a good assemblage of Raniganj plant fossils.
The Raniganj megafossils assemblage of the Auranga Coalfield is characteriz~d by the frequent occurren~ of open mesh species of Glossopteris. The open mesh species are
G. browniana, G. reti/era, G. conspicua, G.
divergens and Glossopteris sp. The narrow mesh species are G. communis, G. stricta, G.fusa, G. decipiens, G. sp. cf. G. nidpurensis and G. leptoneura. Plumsteadia, Vertebraria and scale leaves are also recovered (Table 1).
Raniganj plant fossils have earlier been reported by Feistmantel, 1886; Srivastava, 1956; Maheshwari, 1965; Pant and Gupta, 1968, 1971; Pant and Singh, 1971, 1974.
Pant and his coworkers have created many new species of Glossopteris on the basis of cuticular features.
It has, however, b.::en
0
bserved in such assemblages that the open mesh forms of Glossopteris lik.:: G. browniana, G. relifera, G. cOl1.5picua, G. formosa, G. divergens, G.taenioides, G. damudica, G. euryneura, G.
intermedia, G. longicaulis, G. tortuosa, G.
verticillata are frequently present. The cuti- cular species like G. bangalensis, G. radiata, G. rhabdotaenioides, G. obscura, G. trans- versalsi, G. nautiyalii, G. longicaulis and G.
singular is represent a significant proportion of open mesh forms.
As early as in 1966, Surange express.::d his view that there may be some forms of Glossopteris which can be taken as the index forms for the particular horizon.
Maithy (1974a, b) suggested that in the Raniganj flora the open mesh forms of Glossopteris are frequently found. Rec.::ntly Lode (1976) also observed that the open mesh forms of Glossopteris form a significant proportion of the Raniganj flora. In 1971, Shah, Singh and Sastry considered G. reti- fera and G. conspicua (both open mesh forms)
as index forms for the Raniganj Stage.
In the present assemblage the open mesh forms of Glossopteris are also frequently present. The presenc.:: of index form<; of G. reti/era and G. conspicua in the ass em- blag~ strongly suggests that the flora is equi- valent to the other known Raniganj assem- blages of the Lower Gc>ndwana basins of India.
CONCLUSION
The present w0rk has brought to light the distinct palaeo botanical assemblages from almost all the Lower Gondwana formations of the Auranga Coalfield. The evidences indicate that the Glossopteris flora flourished well in the basin during different stages of
218 THE PALAEOBOTANIST TABLE 2
MEGAFLORAL ASSEMBLAGE STAGES
RANIGANJ
BARREN MEASURES
BARAKAR
KARHARBARl
Glossopteris G. divergens G. conspicua G. retl/era G. browniana G. stricta G. communis G. indica G. leptoneura G. jusa
G. sp. cf.G. nidpurensis Plumsteadia
P. lallceolata Vertebra ria V. indica Scale leaves
Not available
Glossopteris G. illdica G. commullis G. barakarensis G. leptoneura
G.sp. cf. G. intermittens G. juchsii
G. collspicua G. sp. cf. G. amp/a G. browniana G. churiensis Neomariopteris N. barakarensis Diphyl/opteris
D. verticil/ata Ottokaria O. bihal'ensis Scale leaves
Vertebral'ia V. indica Gangamoptel'is G. cyc/opteroides G. c/arkeana Noeggerathiopsis N. densinervis Glossopteris G. communis G. damudica Euryphy//um E. whittianum Neomarioptel'is N. hughesi Samaropsis S. ganjrensis
Vel'tebraria V. indica
Open mesh
Narrow mesh
Narrow mesh
Openmesh
MIOFLORAL ASSEMBLAGE
Faunipo/lenites Brevitriletes Densipol/enites Latosporites Leiotriletes Striatites Latosporites Mamia/etes Laevigatosporites Lahirites
Verticipo//enites Rhizomaspora Scheur
i
ngipo //enitesFaunipo/lenites Densipol/ellites Striatites Verticipo/lenites Scheuringipo//eni tes Lahirites
Latosporites Mamia/etes Crescentipo//enites Faunipo/lenites Striatites Lahirites Bl'evitriletes Lacillitri/etes
Verticipo//enites Diastriatites Punctatisporites Latosporites
Crescelltipol/enite, Limitisporites Kagulubeites Distriamonoco/pi tes
Parasaccites PUllctatispol'ites
Cal/umispora Faunipol/enites Cahelliasaccites Brevitri/etes Psila/acinites Microbacuusp0l'a
Virkkipo/lenites Kibambaites
Verrucosisporites Latospol'ites
REMARKS
Not recognized so far III the field
Not recognized so far in the field
the Lower Gondwana. In many aspects, the general composition of the flora is of the same kind as in the neighbouring coalfields of the Damodar Valley.
The assemblages from different localities are usually distinct enough to throw light on their geological age. It has thus become apparent for the first time that the Karhar- bari and Barren Measures can also be recognized on the basis of palaeobotanical evidences in the basin, within the strata, which were so far mapped as B::l.rakar.
For a complete understanding of the Lower Gondwana sequenc~ it would be worthwhile in future to undertake more detailed geo-
logical fidd work in conjunction with the present pala'o':obotanical studies.
The probable Lower Gondwana sequence in the Auranga Coalfield based on palaeo- botanical evidence is given in the following Table 2 (for palynological data see Lele &
Srivastava, 1979).
ACKNOWLEDG EMENT
The author wishes to express his sincere thanks to Dr K. M. Lele, Head, Palaeozoic Palaeobotany Department, Birbal Sahni Insti- tute of Palaeobotany for his constant help and guidanco':.
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