RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Discovery of organic-walled
microbiota from the black-bedded
chert, Balwan Limestone, the Bhander
Group, Lakheri area, Rajasthan
S. Kumar* and S. K. Pandey
Centre of Advanced Study in Geology, University of Lucknow,
Lucknow 226 007, India

A good assemblage of organic-walled microfossils has

been discovered from the petrographic thin sections of
the black-bedded chert of the Balwan Limestone, the
youngest carbonate horizon of the Bhander Group
(Upper Vindhyans) exposed at about 3 km ENE of
Lakheri township, Bundi District, Rajasthan. The
assemblage is made up of the following forms: Siphonophycus septatum, Siphonophycus robustum, Myxococcoides chlorelloidea, Eoentophysalis sp., Gloeodiniopsis
lamellosa and Gloeodiniopsis sp. All the forms show
cyanobacterial affinity.
Keywords: Balwan Limestone, Bhander Group, blackbedded chert, organic-walled microfossils.

of the Bhander Group, Lakheri area, Rajasthan (Figures 1

and 2).
The Bhander Group is well exposed in the Lakheri area,
which is about 35 km SSW of Sawai Madhopur and
64 km ENE of Bundi city. It is represented by sandstone,
shale and limestone. The rocks are unmetamorphosed and
poorly deformed. The Bhander Group has been subdivided into eight formations (Table 1)23. Two carbonate
formations have been recognized in the Lakheri area; the
lowermost is the Lakheri Limestone, which is devoid of
any stromatolite, while Balwan Limestone constitutes the
youngest carbonate formation and shows good development of Baicalia baicalica and Patomia ossica (Y. Misra,
unpublished). The Sirbu Shale, though representing an
areno-argillaceous succession, also shows occasional development of thick carbonate lenses, up to 30 m thick23. Excellent development of B. baicalica and P. ossica have
been recorded from these lenses (Y. Misra, unpublished).
The Balwan Limestone conformably overlies the Maihar Sandstone and is underlain by the youngest horizon of
the Vindhyan Supergroup, the Dholpura Shale (Table 1).
The Balwan Limestone is developed only in the Lakheri

THE Bhander Group is the youngest of the Vindhyan Supergroup, which is well known for the occurrence of
stromatolites13, mat textures47, carbonaceous megafossils811 and sponge spicule-like forms12. The Ediacarian
fossils1315 have also been reported from this group, but
their biogenic origin is not well established. In addition,
the microfossils have been described from the different
formations of the Bhander Group, which were recovered
using maceration technique16. For Precambrian successions the recovery of microfossils by this technique does
not command a good level of confidence as their syngenecity and indiginousness can never be established with
any degree of confidence, in comparison to those fossils
which have been reported from the petrographic thin sections of the black cherts interbedded with the Precambrian carbonate rocks17. These fossils are permineralized
and chances of contamination are negligible. In addition,
the relationship of the embedded fossils with the rock
material is always discernable. In general, such bedded
cherts are rare in Precambrian sequences, but in the Semri
Group (Lower Vindhyans) there are several horizons from
which good microbial assemblages have been described
from the bedded cherts1721. However, there is only one
such record from the Upper Vindhyans. The Sirbu Shale
horizon of the Bundi area, Rajasthan has yielded microbiota
from the bedded chert22. Here, we report well-preserved
organic-walled microfossils from the black-bedded chert
of the Balwan Limestone, the youngest carbonate horizon

*For correspondence. (e-mail: surendra100@hotmail.com)

Figure 1. Location and geological map of Lakheri area, Bundi District, Rajasthan (simplified after Prasad23).

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Table 1.

Lithostratigraphy of the Bhander Group in Lakheri area, Bundi District, Rajasthan (simplified after Prasad23)

Group

Lithology

ChuariaTawaia Association11
Baicalia baicalica, Patomia assica
(Y. Misra, unpublished)

Baicalia baicalica, Patomia assica

(Y. Misra, unpublished)
Microbial mats25
Algal mats (poorly developed stromatolites)

Sandstone and shale

Limestone and shale

Maihar Sandstone
Sirbu Shale

Sandstone
Shale, sandstone and carbonate

Bundi Hill Sandstone

Samria Shale
Lakheri Limestone
Ganurgarh Shale

Sandstone
Shale, siltstone, sandstone and
limestone
Limestone and shale
Shale and sandstone

Rewa Group

Kaimur Group

Figure 2. Generalized litholog of upper part of the Bhander Group,

Lakheri area, showing position of fossil-bearing chert horizon.

area. It is represented by greyish, pinkish and reddish

limestone. The upper part is stromatolitic and the lower part
shows development of black chert lenses which are up to
several centimetres thick. At places it shows development
of fenestral fabric. Gypsum crystals have also been recorded.
Though no radiometric dates are available for the
Bhander Group, some 87Sr/86Sr ratio data for the Bhander
Group are available, which point to a Neoproterozoic
age24. The age of the Balwan Limestone can also be inferred on the basis of palaeontological information and
lithostratigraphic correlation. The Balwan Limestone is
798

Important fossils

Dholpura Shale
Balwan Limestone

Bhander Group
Upper Vindhyan

Formation

the youngest carbonate horizon of the Bhander Group

which shows good development of B. baicalica and P.
ossica, and is underlain by the ChuariaTawuia-bearing
Dholpura Shale11. To date, no definite Cambrian fossil
has been so far reported from the Bhander Group. Thus, a
Late Neoproterozoic age can be bracketed for the Balwan
Limestone.
The chert has been collected from a locality 3 km ENE
of Lakheri township. The approximate coordinates of the
locality are 2540.647N, 7614.416E. Petrographic
thin sections of the black-bedded chert have been studied
under a Leica orthoplan petrological microscope and photomicrographs have been prepared using Agfa copex TR113 film (Figure 3). All the slides have been deposited in
the Museum of Centre of Advanced Study in Geology,
University of Lucknow. The microbiota has been recorded in petrographic thin sections of the black-bedded
chert. In general, it is made up of silicified oolites cemented together by silica. In thin section it gives a
brownish colour. Dolomite crystals are distributed all
over the slide. In general, microbiota is rare and preservation is not good. The microfossils occur within the algal
clasts, in the cementing material and are also associated
with the bedding marked by organic-rich bands. The following forms have been identified: Siphonophycus
septatum, Siphonophycus robustum, Myxococcoides
chlorelloidea, Eoentophysalis sp., Gloeodiniopsis lamellosa and Gloeodiniopsis sp.
Siphonophycus represents filamentous forms, while
Myxococcoides, Eoentophysalis and Gloeodiniopsis represent coccoid forms. The assemblage shows cyanobacterial
affinity and belongs to the benthic community. However,
no acritarch has so far been discovered from these cherts.
No age connotation can be given to the assemblage as all
the forms are long-ranging, but it opens up a new window
for detailed study of the assemblage and possible discovCURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 94, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2008

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Figure 3. a, Mineralized filaments of Siphonophycus robustum. Slide no. Lakheri-9; coordinates 31.9 77.7. b, S. robustum.
Slide no. Lakheri-5; coordinates 19.3 68.3. c, Myxococcoides chlorelloidea. Slide no. Lakheri-4; coordinates 23.6 79.9; d,
Gloeodiniopsis lamellosa. Slide no. Lakheri-1; coordinates 16.7 70.0; e, Siphonophycus septatum. Slide no. Lakheri-2; coordinates 22.8 74.6; f, Eoentophysalis sp. Slide no. Lakheri-2; coordinates 23.4 71.1; g, Gloeodiniopsis sp. Slide no. Lakheri-9;
coordinates 31.3 76.4; h, Myxococcoides sp. Slide no. Lakheri-4; coordinates 19.4 65.7; i, Eoentophysalis sp. Slide no. Lakheri-4; coordinates 23.4 80.4. Scale bar for all photomicrographs = 20 m, except for (a) which is 50 m.
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ery of acritarchs, which evolved rapidly at the end of the
Neoproterozoic. Detailed work is in progress.

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and the Vindhyan. J. Geol. Soc. India, 1969, 10, 125.
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Lucknow University, (abstr.) 1999, pp. 4448.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. We are grateful to Dr M. P. Singh for

help during the course of investigation and Dr P. Srivastava for reviewing the manuscript. Financial assistance from DST, New Delhi in the
form of a research project is acknowledged.

Received 20 June 2007; revised accepted 23 January 2008

GFP expressing bacterial biosensor to

measure lead contamination in aquatic
environment
Tapas Chakraborty, P. Gireesh Babu,
Absar Alam and Aparna Chaudhari*
Division of Fish Genetics and Biotechnology,
Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Panch Margh,
Versova, Andheri (West), Mumbai 400 061, India

A bacterial biosensor is reported that responds to Pb2+

in the range of 50400 M by expressing green fluorescence protein (GFP). The genetic element that senses
Pb2+ includes the regulatory protein gene (PbrR) along
with operator/promoter (PbrO/P) of the lead resistance
operon from plasmid pMOL30. PbrO/P also controls
the gfp reporter gene expression. Escherichia coli
DH5 is the host organism. GFP response to induction
by Pb2+ peaked at 250 M. Decline in fluorescence beyond 250 M was related to drop in copy number of
the biosensor plasmid in the cells. A formula that es*For correspondence. (e-mail: achaudhari67@gmail.com)
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 94, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2008