| 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.
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Germany 1980 |
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.
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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.
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. | ||
Glossopteris - 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). |
| FDC ( back side of the cover is here) | Circulated cover (the cover sent from Lucknow city in 2013) |
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References: India Picks
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Latest update 30.10.2017
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