FIGURE 1. Spines on different palm organs (A) stem; (B) leaf petiole; (C) leaflet; (D) leaf axis (Rachis); (E) rootlet; (F) fruit.
FIGURE 2. (A) Map showing Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP), red star showing fossil locality (modified after Smith et al., 2015); (B) Recovered spiny feather palms from surface exposures of Deccan sediments; (C) Palaeocontinental map showing the position of the surviving Indian plate and the fossil locality (red dot) at 65.5 Ma. Note that the now subducted 'Greater India' is not shown as its dimensions are poorly constrained, nor is the Tethyan Himalaya microterrane (base maps from https://www.odsn.de/odsn/services/paleomap/paleomap.html).
FIGURE 3. Fossil species Spinopinnophyllum acanthorachis S. Kumar, T. Su and M. A. Khan sp. nov. (SKBUH/PPL/ Um/L/48). (A) A palm leaf specimen showing a stout rachis with well-preserved spines (marked by white arrows) and well-separated plicate leaf segments; (scale bar = 1 cm); (B) A part of the fossil leaf specimen showing two prominent spines on the rachis (scale bar = 1 cm); (C) Counterpart of SKBUH/PPL/Um/L/48 (scale bar = 1 cm); (D, F, H, J) Enlarged views of S. acanthorachis leaf showing the different orientation of spines on the rachis; (E, G, I, K) Line drawing of (D, F, H, J) (scale bar = 1 cm).
FIGURE 4. Fossil species Spinopinnophyllum acanthorachis S. Kumar, T. Su and M. A. Khan sp. nov. (SKBUH/PPL/ UL28). (A) Fossil palm leaf specimen showing a distinct rachis with well-separated leaf segments and scars of spine bases (marked by 1, 2, 3, and 4) (scale bar = 1 cm); (B) A modern palm leaf of Calamus L. (Arecaceae) showing a robust rachis with spines and leaf segments (scale bar = 1 cm); (C) An enlarged view of fig. A showing a robust rachis with scars of spine bases and leaf segments (scale bar = 1 cm); (D) A large view of scar of the base of the spine (scale bar equals 0.3 cm).
FIGURE 5. (A, B) Line drawing of the fossil species Spinopinnophyllum acanthorachis S. Kumar, T. Su and M. A. Khan sp. nov. (Scale bars = 1 cm).
FIGURE 6. Spines on the rachises of different species of modern pinnate palms. (A) Astrocaryum sciophilum (Miq.) Pulle, 1916; (B) Plectocomia dransfieldiana Madulid, 1981; (C) Aiphanes horrida (Jacq.) Burret, 1932; (D) Acrocomia totai Martius, 1944; (E) Astrocaryum murumuru Martius 1824; (F) Bactris gasipaes Kunth, 1816; (G) Desmoncus chinantlensis Liebm. ex Martius, 1853; (H) Aiphanes verrucosa Borchs. & Balslev, 1990; (I) Astrocaryum mexicanum Liebm. ex Martius, 19=853 (scale bars = 1 cm, source: The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, published on the internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat).
