DIOSCOREA EOCENICUS

About:

• The team named their new find Dioscorea eocenicus: the first ever Dioscorea fossil recorded from Asia.
  
  
• The leaf fossil is the first of Dioscorea yams from Asia and hints at a Gondwanan origin to these plants.
  
  
• It is a kind of yam that grows as a herbaceous vine in the humid tropics of India and other countries.
  
  
• It is very distinct as compared it to the other Dioscorea fossils obtained from Europe, Africa and America.
  
  
• Currently, species of Dioscorea in India are found in the humid, tropical forests of the country. Based on this, the team infer that such tropical forests must have flourished in this part of Rajasthan during early Eocene.