Guwahati, May 5 -- Arathi Menon

The recent discovery of fossil evidence of a tree species now considered endemic to the Western Ghats, in a coalfield in Assam, sends a clear message: if global warming continues at its current pace, earth risks losing or severely restricting many of its precious taxa.

Scientists from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences unearthed fossilised leaf remains ofNothopegia oligo travancoricaandNothopegia oligo castaneifolia, in the Makum coalfields of Assam. The "oligo" in the name stands for the geologic time period Oligocene, or the period of time when a fossil was formed, dating back approximately 24 million years). Thefindings of the studysuggest that these species, once widespread across northern a...