Fruits and Pollen of Malvoideae (Malvaceae) in the Maastrichtian–Danian Deccan Intertrappean Beds of Central India

Abstract

Malvaceae were an important component of vegetation represented in the Deccan Intertrappean beds in central India, as verified by fruits and pollen. We review the extinct schizocarpic fruit genera Daberocarpon Chitaley & Sheikh and Harrisocarpon Chitaley & Nambudiri and reconfirm their affinities to the Malvoideae subfamily of the Malvaceae. Micro–computed tomography scanning imagery supplements light microscopy to enable detailed documentation of the morphology and anatomy leading to revised interpretation of their intrafamilial affinities. Other genera of fruits that have been proposed to represent Malvoideae from the same horizon, Chitaleocarpon VD Kapgate, DK Kapgate & Sheikh and Hibiscocarpon VD Kapgate are also reviewed, but in our current assessment they remain uncertain in familial affinity. We also recognize two species of dispersed spiny pollen assigned to Malvacipolloides that indicate that the Malvoideae were present across a large geographic span in central India by the latest Cretaceous. These fossils provide our earliest hard evidence for the subfamily Malvoideae.