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Introduction

Paleobotany, also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeography), and the evolutionary history of plants, with a bearing upon the evolution of life in general. A synonym is paleophytology. It is a component of paleontology and paleobiology. The prefix palaeo- or paleo- means "ancient, old", and is derived from the Greek adjective παλαιός, palaios. Paleobotany includes the study of terrestrial plant fossils, as well as the study of prehistoric marine photoautotrophs, such as photosynthetic algae, seaweeds or kelp. A closely related field is palynology, which is the study of fossilized and extant spores and pollen.

Paleobotany is important in the reconstruction of ancient ecological systems and climate, known as paleoecology and paleoclimatology respectively. It is fundamental to the study of green plant development and evolution. Paleobotany is a historical science much like its adjacent, paleontology. Because of the understanding that paleobotany gives to archeologists, it has become important to the field of archaeology as a whole. primarily for the use of phytoliths in relative dating and in paleoethnobotany. (Full article...)

Selected fossil groups

Image 1

Fossil of P. furcata from Devonian shale of Kentucky, USA.

Protosalvinia is a prehistoric plant found commonly in shale from shoreline habitats of the Upper Devonian period. The name Protosalvinia is a misnomer. The name literally means early Salvinia, and was given in the erroneous belief that the fossils were an earlier form of the living aquatic fern Salvinia. It is no longer believed that the fossils come from a fern, but deciding exactly what the fossils represent is still a matter of debate.

The most likely interpretation of Protosalvinia is that it represents either a fossil liverwort or brown alga, although no definitive brown algae have been identified from before the Tertiary period, and examination of the spore structure shows no features in common with living groups of brown algae. The living plant was a thallus with short dichotomous branching. The branches in the largest species were as much as one centimeter across. In some fossils, the branching lobes lie flat, but in others the tips of the branches are curled up over the fossil, giving it a round outline. Embedded in the tissues of the thallus are chambers in which spores (200 micrometre diameter) were produced by meiosis. (Full article...)
Image 2
Nelumbo aureavallis is an extinct species of flowering plants in the lotus family known from Ypresian age Eocene fossils found in western North Dakota, USA.

The species was described from two leaf specimens with reference to four others. The leaves were found at the AMNH fossil localities 14088, 14089, 14091a and 14099, all of which are in the Camels Butte member of the Golden Valley Formation. The Camels Butte member outcrops at a number of sites in western North Dakota, and is designated as the type locality. (Full article...)
Image 3

Fossil Dillhoffia cachensis calyces

Dillhoffia is an extinct monotypic genus of flowering plant with a single species, Dillhoffia cachensis known from Ypresian age Eocene fossils found in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, US. The genus and species were described from fifteen specimens found in an unnamed formation belonging to the Kamloops group shales; and two specimens from the Klondike Mountain Formation. The unnamed formation outcrops at the McAbee Fossil Beds near Cache Creek, BC, which is designated the type locality while the two U.S. specimens were recovered from the Tom Thumb Tuff member of the Klondike Mountain Formation in Republic, Washington. Of the Okanagan highlands fossil sites, Dillhoffia is only known from two locations, and is absent or has not been identified from the others.

The holotype specimen, number TMP 83.39.175, is preserved in the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and the paratype specimens are in the Thompson Rivers University and University of Saskatchewan collections. The specimens were studied by paleobotanists Steven Manchester of the University of Florida and Kathleen Pigg of Arizona State University. Manchester and Pigg published the 2008 type description for D. cachensis in the journal Botany, Volume 86, number 9. They chose the generic name Dillhoffia to honor the brothers Richard M. Dillhoff and Thomas A. Dillhoff for their substantial contributions and promotion of Pacific Northwest North American Paleogene floras. The specific name is a reference to Cache Creek, British Columbia, the nearest town to the McAbee site. (Full article...)
Image 4

Fossilized branch and cones of Araucaria mirabilis from Cerro Cuadrado, Patagonia, Argentina

Araucaria mirabilis is an extinct species of coniferous tree from Patagonia, Argentina. It belongs to the genus Araucaria.

A. mirabilis are known from large amounts of very well preserved silicified wood and cones from the Cerro Cuadrado Petrified Forest, including tree trunks that reached 100 m (330 ft) in height in life. The site was buried by a volcanic eruption during the Middle Jurassic, approximately 160 million years ago. (Full article...)
Image 5

Glossopteris sp.

Glossopteris (etymology: from Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, " tongue ") + πτερίς (pterís, " fern ")) is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed plants known as Glossopteridales (also known as Arberiales, Ottokariales, or Dictyopteridiales). The name Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within the framework of form genera used in paleobotany (for likely reproductive organs, see Glossopteridaceae).

Species of Glossopteris were the dominant trees of the middle to high-latitude lowland vegetation across the supercontinent Gondwana during the Permian Period. Glossopteris fossils were critical in recognizing former connections between the various fragments of Gondwana: South America, Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. (Full article...)
Image 6

A range of Calamites specimens, illustrating the different appearance of fossils preserved under different taphonomic modes

Calamites is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails (genus Equisetum) are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of 30–50 meters (100–160 feet). They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous Period (around 360 to 300 million years ago). (Full article...)
Image 7
Peltandra primaeva is an extinct species of monocot in the family Araceae known from a Ypresian age Eocene fossil found in western North Dakota, USA.

The species was described from a single leaf specimen found at the White Butte locality, USNM number 14048. This locality is placed in the Camels Butte member of the Golden Valley Formation. The Camels Butte member outcrops at a number of sites in western North Dakota, and is designated the type locality. (Full article...)
Image 8
Hymenaea protera is an extinct prehistoric leguminous tree, the probable ancestor^{[verification needed]} of present-day Hymenaea species. Most neotropical ambers come from its fossilized resin, including the famous Dominican amber.

H. protera once grew in an extensive range stretching from southern Mexico down to the Proto-greater Antilles, across northern South America, and on to the African continent. Both morphology and DNA studies have revealed that H. protera was more closely related to the only species of Hymenaea remaining in East Africa than to the more numerous American species. (Full article...)
Image 9

Archaeopteris hibernica

Archaeopteris is an extinct genus of progymnosperm tree with fern-like leaves. A useful index fossil, this tree is found in strata dating from the Upper Devonian to Lower Carboniferous (383 to 323 million years ago), the oldest fossils being 385 million years old, and had global distribution.

Until the 2007 discovery of Wattieza, many scientists considered Archaeopteris to be the earliest known tree. Bearing buds, reinforced branch joints, and branched trunks similar to today's woody plants, it is more reminiscent of modern seed-bearing trees than other spore-bearing taxa. It combines characteristics of woody trees and herbaceous ferns, and belongs to the progymnosperms, a group of extinct plants more closely related to seed plants than to ferns, but unlike seed plants, reproducing using spores like ferns. (Full article...)
Image 10

Pachypteris is a Mesozoic pteridosperm ("seed fern") genus of fossil leaves. It has either been aligned with the peltasperms or the corystosperms. (Full article...)
Image 11
Palaeoraphe is an extinct genus of palms, represented by one species, Palaeoraphe dominicana from early Miocene Burdigalian stage Dominican amber deposits on the island of Hispaniola, in the modern-day Dominican Republic. (Full article...)
Image 12

Trochodendron nastae specimen

Trochodendron nastae is an extinct species of flowering plant in the family Trochodendraceae known from fossil leaves found in the early Eocene Ypresian stage Klondike Mountain Formation deposits of northern Washington state. T. nastae is one of the oldest members of the genus Trochodendron, which includes the living species T. aralioides, native to Japan, southern Korea and Taiwan and the coeval extinct species T. drachukii from the McAbee Fossil Beds near Cache Creek, British Columbia. (Full article...)

Selected biographies

Image 1
Robert Kidston (29 June 1852 – 13 July 1924) was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist. (Full article...)
Image 2
Tilia johnsoni an extinct linden described by Wolfe and Wehr in 1987

Jack Albert Wolfe (1936–2005) was a United States Geological Survey paleobotanist and paleoclimatologist best known for his studies of Tertiary climate in western North America through analysis of fossil angiosperm leaves. (Full article...)
Image 3
Ana María Ragonese (2 July 1928 – 19 July 1999) was an Argentine botanist and paleobotanist. She researched plant anatomy, focusing on dicotyledons and the anatomy of the fruit and foliage of Frankeniaceae. Ragonese taught at the University of Buenos Aires and was a researcher for the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). Later in her career, she conducted paleobotanical research at the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Argentine Museum and worked at the Darwinian Institute of Botany. (Full article...)
Image 4
Margaret Bryan Davis (née Margaret Bryan; October 23, 1931 – May 22, 2024) was an American palynologist and paleoecologist, who used pollen data to study the vegetation history of the past 21,000 years (i.e. since the last ice age). She showed conclusively that temperate- and boreal-forest species migrated at different rates and in different directions while forming a changing mosaic of communities. Early in her career, she challenged the standard methods and prevailing interpretations of the data and fostered rigorous analysis in palynology. As a leading figure in ecology and paleoecology, she served as president of the Ecological Society of America and the American Quaternary Association and as chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. In 1982 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and, in 1993, received the Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America. (Full article...)
Image 5
Professor Thomas Maxwell Harris FRS (8 January 1903 – 1 May 1983) was an English paleobotanist. (Full article...)
Image 6
Constantin Freiherr von Ettingshausen (or Baron Constantin von Ettingshausen) (16 June 1826 in Vienna – 1 February 1897 in Graz) was an Austrian botanist known for his paleobotanical studies of flora from the Tertiary era. He was the son of physicist Andreas von Ettingshausen. (Full article...)
Image 7

D. H. Scott

Dr Dukinfield Henry Scott FRS HFRSE LLD (28 November 1854 – 29 January 1934) was a British botanist. The standard author abbreviation D.H.Scott is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[1]
Scott was born in London on 28 November 1854, the fifth and youngest son of architect Sir George Gilbert Scott and his wife Caroline Oldrid. (Full article...)
Image 8
Isabel Clifton Cookson (25 December 1893 – 1 July 1973) was an Australian botanist who specialised in palaeobotany and palynology. (Full article...)
Image 9

1838 painting of Sternberg by Alexander Clarot

Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (also: Caspar Maria, Count Sternberg, German: Kaspar Maria Graf von Sternberg, Czech: Kašpar Maria hrabě ze Šternberka; 1761, Prague – 1838, Březina Castle) was a Bohemian aristocrat, theologian, mineralogist, geognost, entomologist and botanist. He is known as the "Father of Paleobotany". (Full article...)
Image 10

Bust of Birbal Sahni, 2014

Birbal Sahni FRS (14 November 1891 – 10 April 1949) was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent. He also took an interest in geology and archaeology. He founded what is now the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow in 1946. His major contributions were in the study of the fossil plants of India and in plant evolution. He was also involved in the establishment of Indian science education and served as the president of the National Academy of Sciences, India and as an honorary president of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm. (Full article...)
Image 11
Sassafras hesperia, an Eocene species described by Berry

Edward Wilber Berry (February 10, 1875 – September 20, 1945) was an American paleontologist and botanist; the principal focus of his research was paleobotany. (Full article...)
Image 12
Ethel Ida Sanborn (1883–1952) was an American paleobotanist and professor of botany at Oregon State College and University of Oregon. She published extensively on the flora of Oregon and the Western United States. The standard author abbreviation Sanborn is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[2] (Full article...)
Image 13
Professor Dianne Edwards CBE, FRS, FRSE, FLS, FLSW (born 1942) is a palaeobotanist, who studies the colonisation of land by plants, and early land plant interactions. (Full article...)
Image 14
William Gilbert Chaloner FRS (22 November 1928 – 13 October 2016) was a British palaeobotanist. He was Professor of Botany in the Earth Sciences Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, and visiting professor in Earth Sciences at University College, London. (Full article...)
Image 15

Franz Unger, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber

Franz Joseph Andreas Nicolaus Unger (30 November 1800 in Gut Amthof near village Leutschach in Styria, Austria – 13 February 1870 in Graz) was an Austrian botanist, paleontologist and plant physiologist. (Full article...)

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Selected images

Image 1Ginkgoites huttonii, Middle Jurassic, Yorkshire, UK. Leaves preserved as compressions. Specimen in Munich Palaeontological Museum, Germany. (from Paleobotany)
Image 2Rhynia, Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert, Scotland, UK. Transverse section through a stem preserved as a silica petrifaction, showing preservation of cellular structure. (from Paleobotany)
Image 3Stigmaria, a common fossil tree root. Upper Carboniferous of northeastern Ohio. (from Paleobotany)
Image 4External mold of Lepidodendron from the Upper Carboniferous of Ohio. (from Paleobotany)
Image 5Lycopod axis (branch) from the Middle Devonian of Wisconsin. (from Paleobotany)
Image 6An unpolished hand sample of the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert from Scotland (from Paleobotany)
Image 7A fossil Betula leopoldae (birch) leaf from the Early Eocene of Washington state, approximately 49 million years ago (from Paleobotany)
Image 8Crossotheca hughesiana Kidston, Middle Pennsylvanian, Coseley, near Dudley, UK. A lyginopteridalean pollen organ preserved as an authigenic mineralization (mineralized in situ). Specimen in Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, UK. (from Paleobotany)