Plant Life of the Quaternary Cold Stages
Evidence from the British Isles

Provides an interpretation of past environments through the analysis of the plant fossil record.

R. G. West (Author)

9780521188920, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 April 2011

342 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

"...a fine example of how interdisciplinary studies on a large scale can paint a bigger and better picture of life in the past." Jane Francis, Palaios

This 2000 book brings together the published information on the Quaternary cold stage flora of over 80 sites in Britain and Ireland to present a factual cold stage flora from the fossil record. The data provides a basis for an interpretation of the flora, vegetation and environments of some of the most extraordinary periods in the earth's most recent history, now only seen in the imperfect mirror of today's Arctic. This important study aims to reveal the nature of an environment, relatively stable, but totally different to that of today. As such it will be significant not only to those interested in the Quaternary, but also to a wider audience of those studying the present flora, fauna and environment, including climate and climatic change.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Geological setting
3. Sedimentary environments and taphonomy
4. The data tables
5. The sites
6. Identification of the flora
7. The flora
8. Representation of taxa in the fossil record
9. Biological aspects of the cold stage flora
10. Habitats of the cold stages
11. The present distribution of taxa found fossil
12. The vegetation: types and their flora
13. Evidence of climate
14. A wider view of cold stage biota
15. Origin and fate of the cold stage stadial flora
16. A final word
References
Appendix - works consulted in the identification of macroscopic remains.

Subject Areas: Palaeontology [RBX]