Introduction to Plant Fossils

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.

• Extensively revised, this second edition brings data on all plant groups, naming approaches using fossil-taxa and information on techniques such as tomography thoroughly up to date with current knowledge in the field
• Provides key information on the practicalities of working with and interpreting plant fossils alongside the evolutionary history of plants and vegetation, combining approaches for the undergraduate and non-specialist
• Explains modern research techniques to identify commonly-found plant fossils and reveal details of anatomical and reproductive characteristics, highlighting how such methods are employed by palaeobotanists