Introduction to Plant Fossils

Offers a practical guide for the non-specialist on studying and learning from plant fossils to understand the evolution of vegetation on Earth.

Christopher J. Cleal (Author), Barry A. Thomas (Author)

9781108705028, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 June 2019

262 pages, 202 b/w illus. 17 colour illus.
24.6 x 19 x 1.4 cm, 0.59 kg

'This edition is great for everyone interested in fossils, plants, and (specially) fossil plants, being especially useful for those starting to study plant evolution and paleobotany. It may also be of interest for everyone who ever found a piece of petrified wood and wanted to learn more about it, and about all of the wonderful and strange plants that inhabited the earth a long time ago.' Andrés Elgorriaga, Plant Science Bulletin

Plant remains can preserve a critical part of history of life on Earth. While telling the fascinating evolutionary story of plants and vegetation across the last 500 million years, this book also crucially offers non-specialists a practical guide to studying, dealing with and interpreting plant fossils. It shows how various techniques can be used to reveal the secrets of plant fossils and how to identify common types, such as compressions and impressions. Incorporating the concepts of evolutionary floras, this second edition includes revised data on all main plant groups, the latest approaches to naming plant fossils using fossil-taxa and techniques such as tomography. With extensive illustrations of plant fossils and living plants, the book encourages readers to think of fossils as once-living organisms. It is written for students on introductory or intermediate courses in palaeobotany, palaeontology, plant evolutionary biology and plant science, and for amateurs interested in studying plant fossils.

1. Introduction
2. Highlights of palaeobotanical study
3. Studying plant fossils
4. Early land plants
5. Lycophytes
6. Sphenophytes
7. Ferns
8. Early gymnosperms
9. Modern gymnosperms
10. Angiosperms
11. The history of land vegetation.

Subject Areas: Rocks, minerals & fossils [WNR], Palaeontology [RBX], Plant ecology [PSTS], Plant physiology [PSTD], Botany & plant sciences [PST], Evolution [PSAJ], Tomography [MMPJ]