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Asia's first fossil Dioscorea yam leaf
Why is it in news?
- Speak of fossils, and dinosaurs first come to mind.
- A quaint fossilised leaf is one of the most recent finds throwing light on India's past.
- The leaf fossil is the first of Dioscorea yams from Asia and hints at a Gondwanan origin to these plants.
More in news
- species of Dioscorea, a kind of yam that grows as a herbaceous vine in the humid tropics of India and other countries.
- On comparison of it to the other Dioscorea fossils obtained from Europe, Africa and America, species of Dioscorea found to be very distinct.
- Tropical forests:
- The team named their new find Dioscorea eocenicus: the first ever Dioscorea fossil recorded from Asia.
- Currently, species of Dioscorea in India are found in the humid, tropical forests of the country.
- Based on this, the team infer that such tropical forests must have flourished in this part of Rajasthan during early Eocene.
- Other fossil plants observed in the mine also suggest this historical climate in the area, which is now dry and consists of desert vegetation.
- What caused such a drastic change in climate?
- As the Indian subcontinent broke away from the supercontinent Gondwanaland many millions of years ago and drifted towards the Equator, the resulting tropical weather created lush tropical forests here.
- As the landmass moved further north and away from the equator, dry vegetation replaced these forests.
Source
The Hindu