Fossil leaves of Terminalia miopaniculata n. sp. and Calycopteris floribundoides Prasad from Siwalik (Upper Miocene) sediments of Sarkaghat Area, Mandi District, Himachal Pradesh, India

A palaeobotanical study has been carried out on the plant fossils (Leaf impression) from the Middle Siwalik sediments of Sarkaghat, Mandi District, Himachal Pradesh, India, which revealed the presence of two new fossil leaves belonging to the extant taxa, Terminalia paniculata Roth. and Calycopteris floribunda Lam. of the family Combretaceae. These extant comparable taxa of the fossils reported here are distributed chiefly in the tropical moist deciduous forests of South and Northeast and central India, respectively, which may suggest that tropical forests under humid climate were prevalent during the Upper Miocene times in this region in contrast to a mixed deciduous forest under the tropical humid climate having reduced precipitation there at present. The fossil records of the genus Terminalia Linn. indicate that this genus was widely distributed in the geological past. Its oldest record in India is from the Late Cretaceous of central India, which suggests that this genus is of Gondwana origin.