BIRBAL SAHNI : A MAN WHO DID WHAT HE LOVED AND LOVED WHAT HE DID

4 | Fossils & Palaeobotany

T
he word Palaeobotany is made of two parts: Palaeo (old) and
Botany (relating to plants). So Palaeobotany refers to the study
of ancient plants. Thus, Palaeobotany is the name of science for
finding, studying and identifying plants preserved in the rocks as fossils.
These fossils represent the vegetation of the past. So it further extends
this knowledge about past vegetation to learn about the climate of that
time. The logic is simple: vegetation at a place evolves in response to the
climate. If climate changes, vegetation also changes. That is the reason
one finds different kinds of vegetation in different places. We see plants
with pointed and conical leaves at high altitudes, thorny vegetation in
the deserts and broad-leaved plants in tropical areas. By inferring about
the vegetation, we can make inferences about the climate. The study of
fossils has another use. If a plant is known to exist only during a narrow
time period, the discovery of that plant’s fossil in sediment can tell us
about the age of that sediment.
Fossils are almost always found in sedimentary rocks that form by
layer-by-layer deposition of sediment. Later, the weight of the sediments
and resulting heat compact the sediment and turn it into a sedimentary
rock. As coal-formation results from ‘cooking of vegetation’, while
buried in the sediment at high temperatures and high pressure, the
study of coal indicates the type of vegetation that evolved into coal. The
study of fossils unfolds the forgotten past. It is impossible to go back in
time and see the lost vegetation. But the fossils allow us a peek into the
past. For instance, plant fossils help us to visualize what those plants
looked like in the past. That is why Prof. Sahni equated fossils to time
machine. He meant that the study of fossils takes us into the past and
we can see the vegetation that may not be existing anymore.

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Fossils can be of different types. Sometimes, buried under

sediments over long periods of time, the plants are charred due to
pressure and temperature there. Many charred remains of past food
grains have been recovered from archaeological sites. Sometimes, the
plants get flattened during burial but, on recovery, can still be identified
based on their shapes/ outlines of the organic remains though there is
some distortion. These are compression fossils. Sometimes, leaves may
get buried in the sediments. If the original organic material goes away
but its impression can be seen, we call it impression fossils.
Sometimes, the organic material of the buried plant (or of its part)
is largely eaten away by insects and bacteria, but before that deposition
happens on that. It is mold and carries the impression of the original
fruit, seed or some other part. In many cases, the surface features of
the object are preserved in this body made of salts/ minerals, and are
available for study even when the original plant or its parts are gone.
This can happen in the case of seeds and fruit. By filling the mold with
soft material, copies of the original fossils can be made.
In some cases, the soft inner material of the plant part is lost to
the surrounding or eaten away by bacteria etc. as above, but then the
empty space, so created, gets filled by salts/ minerals present in the
surrounding. Later, the outer layer (soft, but harder than the original
inner material) also gets lost. But a replica of the original material is
created. This is termed cast.
Plants also have pollen grains and spores. These are reproductive
parts of a plant. These are tiny objects- a small fraction (as small as
1/100th) of a mm in size. Advanced plants have pollen grains while
comparatively primitive plants have spores. In general, spores are
smaller than the pollen grains (but not always). The pollen grain has a
very tough outer layer (exine) made of a polymer called sporopollenin.
The exine survives under the most difficult circumstances. In fact, it is
chemically very strong. So strong that the sediment sample is boiled,
in acid and base, to recover pollen grains from the sediment. While
carbonates, and even silica etc. get dissolved, the pollen grains survive
intact. These ‘Palaeo pollen’ grains have identifiable unique shapes and

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 BIRBAL SAHNI : A MAN WHO DID WHAT HE LOVED AND LOVED WHAT HE DID

unique surface features for each plant, as seen in the pictures taken with
Scanning Electron Microscope.
As a result, the (old or palaeo) pollen grains and spores can be
isolated and identified under a microscope. This can tell us about the
vegetation they belonged to. This branch is termed Palynology or Palaeo
Palynology.
Sometimes, plants get buried in a water body. If water is slightly
acidic, silica may be present in its dissolved form. If there are not too
many bacteria to eat away the organic matter quickly, the dissolved
carbonates and occasionally iron-like elements, present in the aquatic
surrounding, begin to enter the interior of the plant parts. For instance,
the stem of a tree has its cells filled with silica. The process is very slow
and may continue for lacs of years. If the process is allowed to go on
undisturbed for a long period, gradually all the organic material inside
cells is replaced by silica. The result is a petrified tree. These are termed
petrifaction fossils. From the look of it, you may think it is a stem or
branch of an actual tree. But when you touch it, or try to lift it, you
realise that it is now a stone. If you make a thin section of the stem, you
may even see the cell structure under the microscope. It may be noted
that the softest parts like leaves may decay before silicification occurs.

In flesh and blood, Sahni is no more with us, but the torch he lighted
during the last thirty years now burns more brightly than ever and
the foundation of a research institute after his name will always be a
reminder of the great man who brought it into existence.
Prof. Panchanan Maheshwari, FRS

Today, we see petrified wood in places like Dindori, Mandala and

Seoni (Madhya Pradesh), Bolpur (West Bengal), Rajmahal (Jharkhand),
and some places like Jaisalmer (Rajasthan). These formed crores of years
ago. In fact, at several sites of such specimens, fossil parks have been
established around them such as in Ghughwa (Dindori, MP). There,
one can see a huge tree trunks in situ. They were too huge (several
metres long, and about half a metre thick) and too heavy to move

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through water current easily. In all likelihood, they are found today,
where they had been formed.
The petrified wood has the shape as well as features of a tree-trunk.
There is hardly ever any cellulose or such organic material left in the
fossils. It is dominatingly comprised of silica and other materials like
minerals. The present size may be much smaller than their original
size (height and girth). If the process of petrifaction was slow and
undisturbed, the fine features of the cell structure of the stem would still
be preserved. These are termed petrified fossils. In the lab, thin sections
of these samples may be made and the structures can be studied using
a microscope. This is useful in the identification of the wood which
transformed into fossils.
There is another type of fossil called Trace Fossil. These are tracks
found on sediment, indicative of the movement of organisms, and are
seen even when organisms themselves are gone. Even the excreta of
animals may get preserved. Dinosaur poop (called coprolite in technical
language) is one example and has helped palaeobotanists to prove that
grass existed even when dinosaurs roamed the Earth earlier than about
six and a half crore years ago.
So, we see that liquids forget, but rocks remember, as O’Keefe
had said. The fossils carry the valuable memories from the past. These
are writings of nature. Birbal Sahni was a man who could read these
scriptures imprinted in the rocks. The secret of his unusual choice for
research field may be traced to his experiences during a young age and
the background of his family.
Many people have an impression that Palaeobotany is a purely
academic subject with no use to the society. This is not true. It, of
course, tells us how vegetation appeared and evolved on Earth and
actually it is far more interesting than that. Some interesting information
learnt from plant-fossil studies are as follows: In Chhindwara (Madhya
Pradesh), jackfruit grew around 6.5 crore years ago. The inference is
based on a fossil recovered from there. The fossil may be seen in the
museum of BSIP, Lucknow. It is generally believed that the custard
apple (sharifa) reached India from Portugal but based on its engravings

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 BIRBAL SAHNI : A MAN WHO DID WHAT HE LOVED AND LOVED WHAT HE DID

on old Indian temples’ walls such as at Sanchi and Mathura, people

had doubts. Subsequent discoveries of its seeds/ coat from places like
Sanghol (Punjab) and Mirzapur and Sonbhadra (UP), changed the
opinion. The radiocarbon dating of the nearby charcoal as well as of
seed, established them to be about 3000-year-old. Another example is
of Eucalyptus. It is generally believed that it came from Australia. But
the finding of a 6.5 crore old fossil in India, casts doubt on this general
belief.
There is another approach. Pollen grains being characteristic of
a plant, their presence in the sediment tells us about the vegetation
prevailing in those times. In the next step, vegetation being responsive
to climate, the presence of pollen grains and spores also indicates what
kind of vegetation it was. Therefore, one can figure out what kind of
climate was there in places these plants existed. It may surprise you to
learn that Rajasthan, which has two-thirds of its area as desert today,
was not always like that. About 25 lakh years ago, Rajasthan was home
to evergreen forests. This continued up to at least 18 Lakh years ago.
Many in-between phases, during which strong winds and sand dunes
dominated, have left little material evidence to infer about vegetation
but even as late as 5000 to 10,000 years ago, Rajasthan had open
grassland. Pollen grains and spores offer us this opportunity to learn
about past climates.
The study of plant fossils yields other valuable information. Not
many people knew about agricultural practices in India. In India, we
had the cultivation of grapes 2300-1500 years before Christ. This
conclusion is based on the recovery of wood and seeds. Earlier people
thought that grape cultivation happened during the Moghul period.
But evidences of the cultivation of mehndi (henna), chameli (a type
of jasmine), parijata, and lemon during the Harappa period have been
found. More than 2,500 years ago, the use of reetha (soap berry) and
amla (Indian gooseberry) was prevalent in Southern India. There are
many other examples.
In addition, there are applications of economic importance. We
know that oil is recovered by drilling inside the earth. Oil is found

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in so-called ‘traps’. Generally, these ‘oil basins’ are surrounded by

impervious rocks and, also, capped by tough sediment, that prevents
the escape of oil from there. When exploring for oil, one can’t keep on
drilling indefinitely to reach these traps, as drilling is expensive. So, it
is important to decide whether we are drilling at the right place. The
formation of oil happened during certain time periods. So, if one finds
pollen grains etc. indicative of any of those time periods in a certain
stratum (layer) of rock, one can continue drilling further.
A similar approach is adopted in the case of coal which is formed
from vegetation. Long ago, mainly during Gondwana Period (about 25
crore years ago), in India, huge forests got buried under sediment. They
transformed into coal over the following crores of years. Most of the
coal in India is from the Gondwana period and is spread in Jharkhand,
West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Eastern Uttar Pradesh etc. The
coal from theTertiary period (about 5 crore to 15 crore years ago) is
much less in amount and mostly confined to the North-east. Here also,
one identifies the right stratum that may contain coal by looking at the
pollen grains, spores or other palynofossils recovered from there.
Given the major role the hydrocarbons (a combined term for
petroleum, diesel, and hydrocarbon gases) and coal play in our life, we
can appreciate why palynology is important for the society.

With the late Professor Ramanujam, Professor Sir C. V. Raman and

Professor Chandrasekar, Professor Sahni shares the honour and glory of
having given his Motherland an honoured place in the world of science.
Sahni’s mortal remains are no more but he is one of the eternals, whose
work will live as long as Science lives and whose memory will always be
cherished with deep love and admiration by his innumerable friends and
students.
 C Mahadevan

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