Fossil wood of Terminalioxylon (Combretaceae) from the Late Miocene of Southeastern Pakistan: biogeographic and paleoecological implications
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Summary Fossil wood from the Late Miocene of Manchar Formation in the Lower Indus Basin, the Sindh Province, Pakistan has been attributed to Terminalioxylon sp. (cf. T. eo-olivari Harsh, Sharma & Suthar) (Combretaceae). This is the first fossil evidence of this family from the Manchar Formation, exposed in the Lower Indus Basin. Terminalioxylon sp. (cf. T. eo-olivari ) is characterised by the combination of the lack of growth rings, small to large intervessel pits, abundant aliform and aliform-confluent axial parenchyma, the lack of septate fibres, exclusively uniseriate rays, and the occurrence of prismatic crystals in ray cells. The mesomorphic wood traits, including vessels (75–173 μm in tangential diameter, 6.4–7.2 per mm 2 ) and abundant axial parenchyma, suggest that T . sp. (cf. T. eo-olivari ) might be a large tropical or subtropical forest tree species. This fossil wood species provides new evidence for the forest vegetation in what is now Sindh Province during the Late Miocene. Forests predated the expansion of grassland, which occurred about 8 Mya in this region, due to global cooling and local aridification after the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum.
Authors: Izhar Ullah, Noorulain Soomro, Shu-Feng Li, Tao Su, Alexei A. Oskolski
Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Sindh, Chengdu University of Technology, State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Russian Academy of Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G6491718216, G7900036826
OpenAlex ID: W4411440651