Know about Fossil plants - Tamil Nadu

Know about Fossil plants

The National wood fossil park is situated in Tiruvakkarai, a Village of Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. The park contains petrified wood fossils approximately 20 million years old. The term ‘form genera’ is used to name the fossil plants because the whole plant is not recovered as fossils instead organs or parts of the extinct plants are obtained in fragments. Shiwalik fossil park-Himachal Pradesh, Mandla Fossil park-Madhya Pradesh, Rajmahal Hills–Jharkhand, Ariyalur – Tamilnadu are some of the fossil rich sites of India.

Some of the fossil representatives of different plant groups are given below

Fossil algae - Palaeoporella, Dimorphosiphon

Fossil Bryophytes – Naiadita, Hepaticites, Muscites

Fossil Pteridophytes – Cooksonia, Rhynia,, Baragwanthia, Calamites

Fossil Gymnosperms – Medullosa, Lepido-carpon, Williamsonia, Lepidodendron

Fossil Angiosperms – Archaeanthus, Furcula