37,000-Year-Old Thorny Bamboo Fossil From Manipur Points to Ice-Age Refuge in Northeast India

Overview

• Researchers from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences report a fossil bamboo culm dated to roughly 37,000 years from Manipur’s Imphal Valley.
• The specimen, recovered from silt-rich Chirang River deposits, preserves nodes, buds, and distinct thorn scars that rarely fossilize.
• Morphological features assign the stem to the genus Chimonobambusa, establishing the earliest known thorny bamboo fossil in Asia.
• The study supports the Indo‑Burma biodiversity hotspot as a Pleistocene refugium where bamboo persisted during colder, drier climates.
• Findings are published in Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, underscoring the significance of this rare preservation in a group with a sparse fossil record.