Peltasperms in the Permian of India and their bearing on Gondwanaland reconstruction and climatic interpretation

Abstract

We report on the first find of peltasperms in the Permian of Gondwana. Well-preserved leaf compressions and reproductive structures of these plants came from the Lower Permian Barakar Formation of Satpura Basin, central India, where they co-occur with diverse glossopterids. The Indian peltasperm record is evidence of floristic exchanges between Laurasia and Gondwana in the Early Permian involving a dominant group of North American–European arboreal vegetation of the time. The phytogeographic differentiation, leaf micromorphology and stratigraphic occurrence of Permian peltasperms suggest a thermophilic group appearing in central India during the transition from humid peat forming to seasonally dry redbed environments. Therefore peltasperms are unlikely invaders to high-latitude cool-temperate zone postulated for Early Permian Australindia. Instead their Satpura occurrence assigns the Indian subcontinent in the equatorial zone of mixed Laurasian/Gondwanan floristic assemblages.