Discovery of Gondwana plant fossils and palynomorphs of Late Asselian (Early Permian) age in the Karakoram Block

Abstract

We report the discovery of Early Permian (late Asselian, ∼280–275 Ma) plant fossils and associated palynomorphs from a marine sedimentary sequence of the eastern Karakoram plate, in northern India. These specimens show affinities with those found in marine Lower Gondwana sediments of the Indian subcontinent. This supports the contention that during the Early Permian Period, the Karakoram plate was Peri‐Gondwanan. It is suggested to have had an intermediate position between the Indian plate and the Qiangtang–Lhasa microcontinents, at a latitude of about 35° south.