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Occurrence of palynofossils from the Pinjor Formation (Upper

Siwalik) exposed near Chandigarh

Article  in  Current Science · January 1980

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R. K. Saxena
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany
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 OCCURRENCE OF PALYNOFOSSILS FROM THE PINJOR FORMATION
EXPOSED NEAR CHANDIGARH
THE Siwalik Group, bordering the northern limit of
Indo-G~ngetic Plain and exter.ding from Potwar
Plate~u in the west to Burro'!. in the ellst, const:utcst
a very import~nt ~nd interesting stratigraphic unit.
Very little work on the palynology of tl-.is group h"s
so f~r been done1-s• N~ndi· and Ghosh", for the first
time, ~tteropted a p~lynostratigr~ph:c zonation of the
Siwalik Group exposed in the Jaw~l~mukhi Unit of
Punjab. A perusal of the pubLshed literature on tr.e
Siwalik p~lynoloeY reveals that these studies h~ve
mainly been restricted only to the Lower ~nd Middle
Siwaliks. A sYstem'!.tic deslription of tJJ.e Upper
Siwalik paJYGoflora has, however, not been pubI:shed
though Nandi· and Ghosh" mentioned n~me.s of ~ few
palynotaxa occurring in Upper Siwalik. Th( SCl are:
Cyathidites, Alsophilidites, Leptolepidites, Pinuspolle-
nites, Podocarpidites, Monoporopollenites, Alipollenites
and Tetradomonoporites. Th·. present palynolog;cal
assemblage from the Pinjor Formation (Upper Siwalik)
is, therefore, significant as it may serve as a reference
assemblage for the future studies on Upper Siwalik
palynolof,Y.
The material for the present work was collected from
a carbonaceous shale bed exposed in H.e vicinity of
Chandigarh. Tr.e pa1ynotax'l recorded are listed
below: Cyathidites minor Couper, Cyathidites sp.,
LygodiumJporites sp., Todisporites sp., Striatriletes sp.
Podocarpidites ellipticus Cookson, P. microreticuloidatus
Cookson, Pinuspollenites sp., Cedripites sp. Lari-
coMites magnus (Poton:e) Potonie, Tr.omson and
Thiergart, L.punctatus Saxena, Araucariacites australis
Cookson, Retiinaperturites pinjoricus Saxena and Singh,
Palmidites maximus Couper, Psilamonocolpites sp.,
Pinjoriapollis magnus Saxena and Singh, P. lanceolatus
Saxena and Singh, Liliacidites matanomadhensis
Saxena. Favitricolporites sp., Graminidites chandigar-
hensis Saxena and Singh, Triorites sp., Pollen types
1-3, Inapertisporites vulgaris Sheffy and Di!( her and
Monoporisporites minutus van der H'Immen.
The systematic des(,fjption of the above mentior.ed
palynomorphs will be publisted later. An analysis
of the present Pinjor assemblage reveals that out of
a total of 19 genera and 23 species, 4 genera and 5
species belong to pteridophytes (3%), 6 genera and 8
species belong to gymnosperms (65%), 7 genera and
8 spec:es belong to angiosperms (23%) and 2 genera
and 2 species belong to fungal spores (9%). It is
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(UPPER SIWALIK)
interesting to note that inaperturate pollen grains are
the dominant element, constituting 61 % of the
assemblage.
The recovered palynomorphs have been eompared
with the living ones. On the basis of this comparison
it has been surmised that they represent the spores
and pollen grains of the families Cyatheaceae, ScHza-
eaceae, Parkeriaceae, Podocarpaceae, Araucariaceae,
Pin"ceae, Palmae, Liliaceae, Gramineae, Magnoliaceae,
Proteaceae and Oleaceae. The possible reptesentation
of the above mentioned famil'es indicates that the
Pinjor assemblage consists of tropical as well as tempe-
rate elements. It may, therefore, be surmised that
the basin of deposition would have received the palyno-
morphs from two different regions, the temperate
elements from the north and tropical ones from the
south.
Comparison of the present Pinjor assemb~age with
those recorded by Nandi· and Ghosh2 from Jawala-
mukhi, Punjab reveals that only 3 genera, viz., Cyathi-
dites, Podocarpidites and Pinuspollenites are common
to both the assemblages and as such the two assembl-
ages are not comparable. Such a difference may be
attributed to the disparity in stratigraphic horizons as
the Jawalamukhi assemblage comes from the basal
part of Upper Siwalik (Nandi·, pp. 417-419) while
the present assemblage has been derived from the
middle part.
Birbal Sahni Institute of R. K. SAXENA.
Pa!aeobotany, H. P. SINGH.
Lucknow 226 007,
October 11, 1979.
1. Banerjee, D., Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol., 1968,6,
171.
2. Ghosh, A. K., Adv. Pollen Spores Res., 1977, 2,
14.
3. Lukose, N. G., J. palynol., 1969, 4 (2), 107.
4. Mathur, K., Ibid., 1973, 8, 54.
5. N~ndi, B., Proc. Sem. Paleopalynol. Indian Strat.,
Calcutta, 1972, p. 375.
6. -, Him. Geol., 1975, 5, 411.
7. - and Bandyopadhyay, N. N., Sci. Cult., 1970,
36, 240.
8. Venkatachala, B. S., Palaeobotanist, 1972, 19 (3),
284.