India
1997
"BIRBAL SAHNI INSTITUTE OF PALAEOBOTANY, LUCKNOW"
Issue Date |
01.09.1997 |
ID |
Michel: 1568-1571
Scott: Stanley Gibbons:
Yvert: UPU: N/A
Category: pF |
Author |
Uttar Pradesh |
Stamps in set |
4 |
Value |
10 Williamsonia sewardiana
6 Pentoxylon
2 Glossopteris
2 Birbalsahnia divyadarshanii |
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Products |
FDC x 1 |
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Issuing Authority |
Indian Post |
Palaeobotany is the study of plant fossils
preserved in rocks. The word "Fossil" has been defined as "any evidence
of prehistoric life". Plant fossils were formed by burial and
preservation in the sediments in the geological past. During transport
to the site of burial the plant parts underwent decomposition and
deformation in varying degrees. The environment of depositional site
control the preservation of these plant remains. Research in the
science of palaeobotany deals with both large and minute plant fossils
as they help to deduce the antiquity, radiation and evolutionary
pattern of life on earth, the vegetation which was responsible for
coal/oil reserves on earth, environment and climate of the past and
correlation of sedimentary sequences.

Germany 1980
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The first mention of a fossil plant was made by
a German scholar Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century. In India,
the first fossil plant was recorded in the later part of the eighteenth
century, although detailed studies were carried out only in the later
half of the nineteenth century, almost entirely at the Geological
Survey of India, Calcutta.
Professor Birbal Sahni was the first Indian to revitalize study of Indian
fossil plants.
He was a visionary in that he saw the potential of
palaeobotanical research in India in understanding plant evolution
through the ages and application of this knowledge for human welfare.
It was through Prof. Sahni's efforts and zeal that the Institute of
Palaeobotany was founded in September 1946 at Lucknow. The Institute
functions as an autonomous research organization under the Department
of Science and Technology, Government of India, to develop scientific
knowledge and expertise in all branches of palaeobotany and related
disciplines.
The set of four stamps issued by the Department of Posts
to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Birbal Sahni Institute
of Paleobotany in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, depict the richness and
variety of plant fossils.
Williamsonia
sewardiana - extinct genus of plant belonging to Bennettitales, an order of seed plants which bore a resemblance to cycads.
A model of the extinct plant
Williamsonia sewardiana which thrived in Rajmahal, Bihar about 140 million years
ago. This model is based on the reconstruction envisaged by Prof.
Birbal Sahni. Originally described as Zamia gigas by William Crawford Williamson.
William Carruthers proposed the name Williamsonia in an 1870 paper of
his, with the type species being Williamsonia gigas
An e Fossilized specimens of Williamsonia have been discovered worldwide.
Pentoxylon
- An important discovery of Prof. Birbal Sahni is the extinct plant
group named Pentoxylae from Nipania in Dumka district, Rajmahal Hills,
Bihar (age 110-114 million years). Reconstruction of plant with leaves,
stem, flowers. Pentoxylon takes its name from the five wedges of wood that characterize its stem.
Pentoxylon is a Gondwanan taxon, which has been found in India,
Australia and New Zealand. Pentoxylon first appears in the later part
of the Paleozoic, but its greatest diversity and abundance appears to
be in the Jurassic, continuing into the Early Cretaceous.
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Glossopteris
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The tongue-shaped leaf Glossopteris, represents a unique group of
extinct vascular plants (age : Permian, 250-280 million years). During
this period India occupied a position south of equator close to South
Pole as a part of a very large continent which included South America,
Antarctica, Africa and Australia, called Gondwanaland. This vegetation
was responsible for the precious coal reserves in peninsular India.
Birbalsahnia divyadarshanii - Fossil of an enigmatic flower-like organ
of the extinct plant named after eminent Indian Palaeobotanists - Prof.
Birbal Sahni and Prof. Divya Darshan Pant, discovered from Hura
Coalfield, Santhal Pargana, Bihar (age 250-280 million years).
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Products
FDC (
back side of the cover is here)
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Circulated cover (the cover sent from Lucknow city
in 2013)
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References:
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