Home / Teaching Documents, Lecture Notes and Tutorials

Home / Teaching Documents, Lecture Notes and Tutorials / Teaching Documents about Palaeobotany

Home / Teaching Documents, Lecture Notes and Tutorials / Teaching Documents about Palaeobotany / What is Palaeobotany?

Karen Bacon, My Science Career (an initiative of Ireland´s national integrated awareness programme Discover Science and Engineering: Palaeobotany. Studying for a multidisciplinary PhD in palaeobotany.

James F. Basinger, Geological Sciences, Univ. of Saskatchewan (World Book Online): Paleobotany (now via wayback link).

BookRags (a website for literature summaries etc.): From World of Biology, Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation: Paleobotany.

Paleobotanical Section of the Botanical Society of America: Executive Summary: Paleobotany.

William (Bill) A. DiMichele (1998): Love´s labour lost? Or the tragic story of a young paleontologist who chooses fossil plants ... PDF file, Palaios 13.

! William A. DiMichele and Robert A. Gastaldo (2008): Plant Paleoecology in Deep Time. PDF file, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 95: 144-198. See also here (abstract).

Robert A. Gastaldo, Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, Maine: A Brief Introduction to PALEOBOTANY, and WHAT IS PALEOBOTANY? Navigate via: Notes for a Course in Paleobotany.

Paul Kenrick, The Natural History Museum, London: Nature online, Earth, Fossils, Fossil plants of Britain. Easy-to-understand introduction. To watch the video, you'll need to have Windows Media Player or QuickTime installed on your computer.

! Hans Kerp, Palaeobotanical Research Group, Münster, Westfälische Wilhelms University, Münster: Some recent palaeobotanical text books. This web page provides a selection of palaeobotanical text books published during the last years. With some helpful comments.

Ross E. Koning, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Connecticut: Why Study Plants?

LoveToKnow 1911 Online Encyclopedia (based on the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, first published in 1911): Palaeobotany.

Naresh Chandra Mehrotra, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, India: Relevance of Palaeobotany in Education and Research in the New Era – The Indian Scenario. PDF file, www.asiaoceania-conference.org, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) Meeting Matters International, Singapore.

Una R. Smith, Department of Biology, Yale University: The Future of Paleobotany (or, How am I driving?) From: The PaleoNet Forum: A Monthly Electronic Journal, January, 1996: Volume 2, Issue 1.

Bruce H. Tiffney, UC Santa Barbara: What is Science? Tracking the course of evolution.

Home / Teaching Documents, Lecture Notes and Tutorials / Teaching Documents about Palaeobotany / General

! Nan Crystal Arens, C. Strömberg and A. Thompson, Department of Integrative Biology, and Paleobotany Section, Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), University of California at Berkeley: Virtual Paleobotany. The Virtual Paleobotanical Laboratory, a comprehensive treatment of the fossil record of land plants, is divided into 12 chapters, lab I through XII. Each lab has a title page, a page with questions around the group or subject of study, a list of literature and links for further reading and exploration, and a virtual gallery of images from the lab. The directory page is a generalized phylogeny that presents an overview hypothesis of relationships among the land plants. Excellent!

Amanda Ash, Department of Paleobiology Smithsonian Institution NHB, Washington, DC; Beth Ellis, Boulder, CO; Leo J. Hickey, Division of Paleobotany, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University New Haven, CT; Kirk Johnson, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Denver Museum of Natural History, Denver, CO; Peter Wilf, University of Michigan, Museum of Paleontology, Ann Arbor, MI; Scott Wing, Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution NHB,Washington, DC: Manual of Leaf Architecture. ISBN 0-9677554-0-9, Copyright by Smithsonian Institution. A PDF file (4.1 MB). The main goal of this manual is to define and illustrate for the reader an unambiguous and standard set of terms for describing leaf form and venation, particularly of dicots. This manual also provides a template and set of instructions that show how descriptive information can be entered into a standardized database of fossil and extant leaves. Published and distributed by the Leaf Architecture Working Group (LAWG). (Page hosted by the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University).

! Lorna Ash & Heather Kroening, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta: Instructional Multimedia, Multimedia Topics, Botany. Go to: Hydrasperman Reproduction, Peel Technique. See also here. Online and downloadable flash movies. Excellent!

! R. Barclay, J. McElwain, D. Dilcher and B. Sageman (2007): The cuticle database: developing an interactive tool for taxonomic and paleoenvironmental study of the fossil cuticle record. PDF file, In: Jarzen, D. M., Steven, R., Retallack, G. J. and Jarzen, S. A. (eds.), Advances in Angiosperm Paleobotany and Paleoclimatic Reconstruction, Contributions Honouring David L. Dilcher and Jack A. Wolfe, Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt, pgs. 39-56.

BookRags Inc.: BookRags was launched with the idea to create a web site providing classic literature study guides entirely free for students. Interesting in terms of science history. Go to: A.C. Seward (1909!), Darwin and Modern Science. See: D.H. Scott, The Palaeonotological record, Plants.

The Botanical Society of America: Online Image Collection. This is a collection of approximately 800 images available for instructional use. The site is run by a search engine database, designed and maintained by Scott Russell; slides scanned by Tom Jurik and Dave Webb. The copyright and any intellectual property rights for these images are retained by the individual donors. Visit "SET 11 - PALEOBOTANY".

Botany.Com, the Encyclopedia of Plants: Leaf shapes.

Alison Campbell, Penelope Cooke, Kathrin Cass and Kerry Earl, School for Science and Engineering, The University of Waikato, New Zealand: Evolution for teaching. Go to: Frequently Asked Questions. See also: Plant Evolution.

Sean Carrington, Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Barbados: THE PLANT KINGDOM. An introduction to the world of plants from an evolutionary perspective. Now complete!

Regine Claßen-Bockhoff (2001): Plant Morphology: The Historic Concepts of Wilhelm Troll, Walter Zimmermann and Agnes Arber. Free PDF file, Annals of Botany, 88: 1153-1172.

C.J. Cleal & B.A. Thomas, Geological Conservation Review Series (GCR), Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). The JNCC is the UK government's wildlife adviser, undertaking national and international conservation work on behalf of the three country nature conservation agencies English Nature, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Countryside Council for Wales. Go to: Introduction to the Mesozoic and Tertiary palaeobotany of Great Britain, and List of Sites. PDF files.

C. J. Cleal & B. A. Thomas: A Provisional World List of Geosites for Palaeozoic Palaeobotany. This a new project initiated by the IUGS to develop an inventory of globally important geological sites. GEOSITES provide a provisional list of candidate Palaeozoic palaeobotany sites. The results are summarized in 40 sites, which are intended to show the broad pattern of evolution in land floras from the middle Silurian to the end of the Permian.

Bruce Cornet, (?) Raritan Valley Community College, Somerville, NJ: Why do Paleobotanists Believe in a Cretaceous Origin of Angiosperms? A controversial topic. This website presents palaeobotanical evidence on the origin of flowering plants, with evidence for and against a Cretaceous origin. See also: Angiosperm Evolution.

D.L. Dilcher (1991): The importance of anatomy and whole plant reconstructions in palaeobotany. PDF file, Current Science 61: 627-629.

! William A. DiMichele and Robert A. Gastaldo (2008): Plant Paleoecology in Deep Time. PDF file, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 95: 144-198. See also here (abstract).

W.A. DiMichele, H.W. Pfefferkorn, and R.A. Gastaldo: RESPONSE OF LATE CARBONIFEROUS AND EARLY PERMIAN PLANT COMMUNITIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., January 1, 2001; 29(1): 461-487.

! Erling Dorf (project continued by the Yale Peabody Museum’s Division of Paleobotany; electronic release 1.0, Jan 11, 2006 by L.J. Hickey, L.S. Klise, and W.A. Green): The Compendium Index of North American Mesozoic and Cenozoic Type Fossil Plants (PDF files). This card catalog contains illustrations and descriptions of fossil plant species. Based on variables such as leaf shape and major venation type these cards are arranged into sets of numbered morphological categories. It presently covers fossil floras from North America, including Greenland, starting in the Triassic and extending to the Pleistocene. Over 93 references have been added in the last 20 years, and the Compendium Index has grown from 10,000 cards to approximately 20,000 cards, with 9,881 entries from 235 references dating from 1866 to 2003. Freely distributable for non-commercial purposes.
Table of contents:
README.txt---this file, containing license and general information
CI.csv, CI.xls---the data files in tab-delimited text format and Excel (.xls) format
CI.txt---an ascii file giving the database structure
CICflat_key.pdf---a flat description of the Compendium Index Categories that originally appeared in Leaf Architecture Working Group (1999)
CICthumbnails.pdf---small illustrations of the Compendium Index Categories that originally appeared in Leaf Architecture Working Group (1999)
CICdichotomous_key.pdf---a dichotomous key to the Compendium Index Categories that appears here and in Green and Hickey (in press)
age_codes.pdf---a key to the age codes used in the database
references.pdf---an alphabetical list of the publications cited in the database
CICeps.tar.gz---a gzipped tar archive with high-quality eps representing Compendium Index Cateogries 100--155. A future release will include all the images shown as thumbnails in CICthumbnails.pdf

! EnchantedLearning.com: Botany and Paleobotany Dictionary.

J. Folsom, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA: Plant Trivia Timeline. The Timeline gives world history from the viewpoint of a botanist. It is the story of plant discovery and use, and addresses the roles of plants in human civilization.

Robert A. Gastaldo, Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, Maine: A Brief Introduction to PALEOBOTANY, and WHAT IS PALEOBOTANY? Navigate via: Notes for a Course in Paleobotany.

! Geotimes, July 2002: Highlights . Discoveries in the Earth Sciences. Now Geotimes offer the Highlights section (summaries of research trends and discoveries) in full online. Go to: Melanie Devore and Kathleen Pigg, Paleobotany. Linda E. Graham (Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI), Martha E. Cook, and James S. Busse (2000): The origin of plants: Body plan changes contributing to a major evolutionary radiation. Abstract, PNAS, Vol. 97, Issue 9, 4535-4540. See also here.

! David R. Greenwood, Environmental Science Program, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada: Fossil plants as environmental indicators Lecture note, PDF file (3.6 MB).

! Greenworks Organic-Software, Berlin, Germany: XfrogPlants V 2.0 Plant Library. XfrogPlants are 22 different 3D Plant Libraries, each containing 20 Species x 3 ages, and created using Xfrog procedural organic software. Samples of each plant in each library available, go to: Fossil Plants. Plant reconstructions. Excellent!

Kent E. Holsinger, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT: Reproductive systems and evolution in vascular plants (PDF file).

Hooper Virtual Natural History Museum (HVNHM), Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Ottawa: Carboniferous Forests. Easy to read publication. Life, death, and afterlife of a coal forest.

! T.P. Jones and Nick P. Rowe (eds.), Google Books (some pages are ommitted): Fossil plants and spores: modern techniques. Published by Geological Society, 1999, 396 pages. Excellent! Click: "Preview the book".

M. Alan Kazlev, Palaeos, The Evolutionary History of Green Plants. This website illustrates the diversity of green plants, according to modern palaeobotanical and paleontological understanding.

Hans Kerp, Palaeobotanical Research Group, Westfälische Wilhelms University, Münster: A History of Palaeozoic Forests. An introductory text with many helpful links directly related to the history of Palaeozoic forests. 7 chapters provide information about: The earliest land plants; Towards a tree-like growth habit; The earliest forests; The Carboniferous coal swamp forests; The floral change at the end of the Westphalian; Stefanian and Rotliegend floras; Is there a floral break in the Permian?

! Hans Kerp, Palaeobotanical Research Group, Münster, Westfälische Wilhelms University, Münster: Some recent palaeobotanical text books. This web page provides a selection of palaeobotanical text books published during the last years. With some helpful comments.

! M. Kosnik and Allister Rees et al., University of Chicago: Paleogeographic Atlas Project Databases (PGAP): The data in this database (the original database: username = public, password = public) have been assembled over the years by people in the Paleogeographic Atlas Project. Search in a "Climate Sensitive Sediments Database", "Floral Database", "Lithology Database", "Features Database", and a "Reference Database". Go to:
"Floral Database", Search in "Locality information", "Age", e.g. "Triassic". A Triassic plant fossil locality list, with the corresponding fossil plant taxa. Excellent!

V.A. Krassilov (2003): Terrestrial palaeoecology and global change. PDF file (35.6 MB), Russian Academic Monographs No. 1, 464 p., (Pensoft), Sophia.

LoveToKnow: The LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia is based on the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Go to: Palaeobotany.

! Li Wenyan & Lu Dadao (1998): Atlas of Fossil Plant Anatomy in China. 390 pages. Provided by VSP through the Google Books Partner Program. Registration procedure required. Use "More results from this book" or "Search this book" to navigate. Unfortunately, you can view two pages around your search result, but you can search again! Use Google Book Search to search the full text of books.

Sebastian Molnar, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver: Evolution and the Origins of Life. A directory of introductions concerning evolution, with a bias to Plant Biology and Evolution. Excellent examples about how evolution works can be seen from the plant world. Go to: Angiosperm Origins and Evolution, or The Evolution of Polyploidy, and Summary: Polyploid Evolution, Plant Evolution: Overview.

Research Centre of Palaeontology and Historical Geology: Institute, States Collections, and Museum of Palaeontology and Historical Geology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: Online Exhibition "Living Fossils". Go to: Handfarne, Ginkgos und Mammutbäume, and Walter Jung, Der Ginkgo - Baum, ein Unikum mit Vergangenheit, and Walter Jung, Die Metasequoia, ein zum Leben erwecktes Fossil. In German.

Nature Science Update (December 8, 1999): One for the Vine. "A prickly climbing vine", Vasovinea tianii (Gigantopteridales), that lived more than 250 million years ago could shed light on the origin of flowering plants.

nature science update: relics: Fall put leaves on trees. Beerling, D. J., Osborne, C. P. & Chaloner, W. G.: Evolution of leaf-form in land plants linked to atmospheric CO₂ decline in the late Palaeozoic era. Nature 410, 352–354 (2001).

Karl Niklas, (Section of Plant Biology, Cornell University), Access Excellance, BioForum 4, "Theoretical Issues in Plant Biology". BioForum is a series of lectures, presented by California Academy of Sciences, in which scientists share their research results with high school biology teachers. Plant Evolution: Adaptation or Historical Accident? Is plant evolution largely adaptive or is it contingent on historical accidents? Dr. Niklas discuss in some detail a computer generated model dealing with the early evolution of land plants that can be used to predict how plant architecture must change to assure evolutionary success as the environment changes.

Kevin C. Nixon, L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University Ithaca, NY: Paleobotany in cladistics and cladistics in paleobotany: enlightenment and uncertainty. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Volume 90, Issues 3-4, February 1996, Pages 361-373.

Department of Horticulture and Crop Science in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University: Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew: Plant Evolution. Images of models to represent extinct plant forms with modern versions of 'primitive' plants, the entire display conveyed in dramatic fashion the dramatic change in plant form over the ages.

Paleogeographic Atlas Project, University of Chicago: Jurassic Floras and Climate.

! William K. Purves, David Sadava, Gordon H. Orians, and H. Craig Heller Life, The Science of Biology (Seventh Edition). The Companion Site. Interactive summaries, the glossary, animated tutorials and lots of flahcards (review figures). Go to: Chapter 30: The Evolution of Seed Plants.

A.E. Radford, W.C. Dickison, J.R. Massey, & C.R. Bell (Harper and Row, New York): Vascular Plant Systematics. This book was written as a reference text for basic courses in taxonomy and as a source book of information, procedures and references for ecosystematics, biosystematics, phylosystematics and chemosystematics. Searching images you may navigate from here. See also:
! Section A. Structure and Specialized Characters: V. Leaves.

P. McAllister Rees, Alfred M. Ziegler, Mark T. Gibbs, John E. Kutzbach, Pat J. Behling, and David B. Rowley: Permian Phytogeographic Patterns and Climate Data/Model Comparisons. PDF file.

Ian Miller and Rose Prevec, Palaeontologia Electronica Volume 9, Issue 2 (2006): Palaeobotany in the Digital Age: Unearthing the Future of Taxonomy.

ANITA ROTH-NEBELSICK (Institut und Museum für Geologie und Paläontologie der Universität Tübingen), DIETER UHL, VOLKER MOSBRUGGER and HANS KERP: Evolution and Function of Leaf Venation Architecture: A Review. PDF file; Annals of Botany 87: 553-566, 2001.

Gar W. Rothwell, Department of Environmental and Plant Biology Ohio University, Athens: Paleobotany. This course covers the evolutionary history of plants as revealed by the fossil record. Go to: Cutting a Coal Ball, and Coal Ball Peel Technique.

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne: Teacher Resources, Gondwana Greening. Easy to understand tutorial (PDF file, 2.98MB)

Scott Russell, Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma, College of Arts and Sciences, Norman: Morphology of Vascular Plants. Lecture notes, chiefly PDF files, including palaeobotany topics.

George E. Schatz, Missouri Botanical Garden: Malagasy/Indo-australo-malesian Phytogeographic Connections. From the printed version: Schatz, G.E. 1996: Malagasy/Indo-Australo-Malesian phytogeographic connections. In: W.R. Lourenço (ed.), Biogeography of Madagascar. Editions ORSTOM, Paris.

Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Erwin Beck, Klaus Müller-Hohenstein (2005): Sample pages, Plant Ecology. Keywords for this textbook are e.g. autecology, ecophysiology, ecosystem ecology, plant ecology, synecology. Worth checking out: Table of contents (PDF file). Go to: 4.1 Historic-Genetic Development of Phytocenoses and Their Dynamics (PDF file).

A.C. Scott (1990): 3.10 Anatomical Preservation of Fossil Plants. PDF file, scroll to page 263! Article in: Derek Briggs and Peter Crowther (eds.): Paleobiology: A Synthesis. Navigate from the contents file (PDF).

! Judith E. Skog, International Association for Plant Taxonomy:
Report of the Committee for Fossil Plants: 4. PDF file, Taxon (2003), 52: 341-341.
Report of the Committee for Fossil Plants: 5. PDF file, Taxon (2005), 54: 175-176.
Report of the Committee for Fossil Plants: 6. PDF file, Taxon (2005), 54: 827-827.

! Wilson N. Stewart (1983, 1993; reprinted 1999, 2001): Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants. 535 pages. Provided by Cambridge University Press through the Google Print Publisher Program. Registration procedure required. Use "More results from this book" or "Search this book" to navigate. Unfortunately, you can view two pages around your search result, but you can search again! Use Google Book Search to search the full text of books.

! R.A. Stockey, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta: PALEOBIOLOGY OF ANGIOSPERM ORIGINS. This course explores recent advancements toward resolution of the evolutionary origin of flowering plants. Go to:
Presentation on Gnetophyta: An Enigmatic Group of Seed Plants (Author: Thorsten Hebben).

! Ralph E. Taggart, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology/Department of Geological Sciences at Michigan State University, East Lansing: BOT335 Lecture Schedule. Some interesting chapters in terms of palaeobotany, e.g. The First Vascular Land Plants;
Carboniferous Forests;
Arborescent Lycopods;
Psaronius: a Carboniferous tree-fern;
Carboniferous Horsetails;
Carboniferous Seed Ferns;
The Evolution of Conifers;
Cycadophytes, the True Cycads;
Mesozoic Cycadeoids;
Ginkgophytes;
North American Redwoods, Past and Present.

! T.N. Taylor et al. (2009): Paleobotany: the biology and evolution of fossil plants (Google books, limited view).

Ellen Thomas, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University: Macroevolution. Lecture notes. Please, navigate from here. Worth checking out: Assignment: Plants (via wayback).

! Johanna H. A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert (2008): The Jurassic fossil plant record of the UK area. PDF file, Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 119: 59-72. See fig. 6 (after Cleal et al. 2001), how to distinguish bennettialean leaf shapes!

Kali Wallace, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder: Cenozoic Elevation of the Rocky Mountains. Go to: Paleobotanical Methods. Floral classification schemes and methods of climatic and atmospheric analysis are briefly described, e.g. fossil classification by the "nearest living relative" method or by physiognomy and CLAMP.

! Kathy Willis, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, & Jenny McElwain, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Oxford University Press): The Evolution of Plants. Book announcement. Go to: PowerPoint illustrations. Illustrations from the book in PowerPoint format. See also: Biome maps. Downloadable full-color images from the book.

! Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Evolution of plants,
Paleobotany,
Timeline of plant evolution,
Plant evolutionary developmental biology.

S.L. Wing and DiMichele, W.A. (1995): Conflict between local and global changes in plant diversity through geological time. PDF file, Palaios, 10: 551-564.

Home / Teaching Documents, Lecture Notes and Tutorials / Teaching Documents about Palaeobotany / Focused on the Evolution of Plants

Stephen T. Abedon, The Bacteriophage Ecology Group, Mansfield, Ohio State University, Columbus: Evolution of Plants. Brief lecture notes.

Francisco J. Ayala, Walter M. Fitch, and Michael T. Clegg (eds.): Variation and Evolution in Plants and Microorganisms: Toward a New Synthesis 50 Years after Stebbins. Online book, National Academy of Sciences (2000).

Richard M. Bateman, Peter R. Crane, William A. DiMichele, Paul R. Kenrick, Nick P. Rowe, Thomas Speck, and William E. Stein: EARLY EVOLUTION OF LAND PLANTS: Phylogeny, Physiology, and Ecology of the Primary Terrestrial Radiation.- Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 1998 29: 263-292. Full Online Access via Annual Reviews, Go to Annual Reviews Search Page (Biomedical Sciences), Search for "Bateman" (Field Author, Last Name).

BBC News, Friday, 3 May, 2002: "Oldest flower" found in China.

! Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), University of California at Berkeley, Plantae, Fossil Record: Chart of First Appearances of Major Plant Groups. Each of the taxonomic plant groups in pink boxes can be clicked upon to take you to an introduction.

Robert A. Berner, Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut: The Rise of Plants and Their Effect on Weathering and Atmospheric CO₂ (now via wayback archive). See also here.

Michael Bernstein, Washington and New Orleans, March 21-27, 2003: (American Chemical Society, EurekAlert): Scientists find evidence for crucial root in the history of plant evolution.

The palaeofiles. Articles here have all been prepared by students on the palaeobiology programmes in Bristol:
The origin and evolution of angiosperms.

! Stephen P. Broker, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute: The Evolution of Plants. The evolution of plants is briefly treated primarily in terms of a consideration of the concepts of time and change, and an appreciation of the great diversity of life on earth today (without images). Recommended for Biology, 9th and 10th grade level, and Botany, 11th and 12th grade level.

! Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge (developed by Nicola Peart and Ben Roberts, with feedback from Katy Jordan, Howard Griffiths and Beverley Glover): Plant Evolution Timeline. This is a cut-down version of the full tool, designed primarily to aid plant scientists with their learning of plant evolution.
Click: "Timeline".
Including first occurence (or first appearance) of species and speciation and major groups of plants. See also:
Plant Evolution Timeline - Help.

Alison Campbell et al., Biology & Earth Science, The University of Waikato, New Zealand: Evolution for Teaching. This website has been developed to provide a web based resource for use by secondary teachers, especially in the science fields of evolution and geological time. Go to: Plant and Animal Evolution.

Sean Carrington, Department of Biological & Chemical Sciences, University of the West Indies (UWI), Barbados: The Plant Kingdom. An introduction to the world of plants from an evolutionary perspective.
Have a look for handouts and PDF files, or
navigate from here.

David D. Cass, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta: Earliest Evidence of Flowering Plants. 32 slides.

Philippe Choler, Laboratoire de Biologie des Populations d'Altitude, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble: Biologie Evolutive Végétale. Concepts and methods in evolutionary biology (in French). Navigate from "Plan du cours" (access to about 335 slides). Go to: Quelle est l’origine des Angiospermes?

Paul F. Ciesielski, Dept. Geological Sciences, University of Florida: Evolution of Earth and Life. Go to: Transition of plants to land.

Richard Cowen, Department of Geology, University of California, Davis: Comparing Plant and Animal Evolution.

Peter R. Crane, Else Marie Friis, and William G. Chaloner (2010): Darwin and the Evolution of Flowers. PDF file, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 365: 347-350. See also here.

D. J. Daniels, Glendale High School, Glendale, Arizona: Advanced Placement Biology 2000, D. J. Daniels' Glendale High Biology Page, Land Plants, Evolution and Diversity.

Charles Delwiche, University of Maryland (Second Astrobiology Science Conference NASA AMES Research Center): Photsynthetic Eukaryotes: From the Acquisition of Organelles to the Colonization of the Land.

Adam Dimech, Burnley College, University of Melbourne, Australia: Plant Evolution. This website is designed to serve as an introduction to the theory behind the evolution of the world's flora, with some emphasis placed on the Australian flora.

James A. Doyle, Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis: PHYLOGENY OF VASCULAR PLANTS. Abstract, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 1998. 29:567-599. See also here.

M.J. Farabee, Estrella Mountain Community College Center, Avondale, Arizona: On-Line Biology Book. Introductory biology lecture notes. Go to:
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: NONVASCULAR PLANTS AND NONSEED VASCULAR PLANTS, and
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: SEED PLANTS. See also:
PALEOBIOLOGY: THE LATE PALEOZOIC,
PALEOBIOLOGY: THE MESOZOIC, AGE OF CYCADS AND DINOSAURS.

William E. Friedman and Martha E. Cook (2000): The origin and early evolution of tracheids in vascular plants: integration of palaeobotanical and neobotanical data. Abstract and PDF file, Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 355.

Else Marie Friis, Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen and Peter R. Crane (2010): Diversity in obscurity: fossil flowers and the early history of angiosperms. PDF file, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 365: 369-382. Some of the specimens are charcoalified and have retained their original three-dimensional shape. See also here.

! Michael W. Frohlich & Mark W. Chase (2007): After a dozen years of progress the origin of angiosperms is still a great mystery. Abstract, Nature 450: 1184-1189.

! Robert A. Gastaldo, Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, Maine: Plant Associations of the Mesophytic. Lecture Notes.

Alan Graham (1993): 3. History of the Vegetation: Cretaceous (Maastrichian) - Tertiary. PDF file, Vol. 1. Flora of North America north of Mexico. See also here.

Linda E. Graham, Martha E. Cook, and James S. Busse: The origin of plants: Body plan changes contributing to a major evolutionary radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 97: 4535-4540, 2000.

! Norman F. Hughes (1994): The Enigma of Angiosperm Origins. 405 pages. Provided by Cambridge University Press through the Google Print Publisher Program. Registration procedure required. Use "More results from this book" or "Search this book" to navigate. Unfortunately, you can view two pages around your search result, but you can search again! Use Google Book Search to search the full text of books.

Kenneth G. Karol, Richard M. McCourt, Matthew T. Cimino, and Charles F. Delwiche, Science Magazine: The Closest Living Relatives of Land Plants. This analysis supports the hypothesis that the land plants are placed phylogenetically within the Charophyta, identifies the Charales (stoneworts) as the closest living relatives of plants.

Keith Karoly, Reed College Biology Department, Portland, OR: Contemporary Topics in Biology - Molecular Genetic Analysis of Plant Evolution. A range of online articles. Go to: Molecular clocks and plant evolution.

M. Alan Kazlev and Toby White, Australia: Palaeos: The trace of Life on Earth. The Palaeos Site is dedicated to providing a detailed and - at least in parts - comprehensive overview of the history of life on Earth. Use the menu bars at the top and (in longer pages) bottom of the page to navigate. Go to: The Evolutionary History of Green Plants. All in a nutshell about green plant evolution-related topics, including textbook illustrations and the coverage of major phyla and kingdoms.

Kelber, K.-P. (2003): Sterben und Neubeginn im Spiegel der Paläofloren. PDF file (17 MB!), in German. Plant evolution, the fossil record of plants and the aftermath of mass extinction events. pp. 38-59, 212-215; In: Hansch, W. (ed.): Katastrophen in der Erdgeschichte - Wendezeiten des Lebens.- museo 19, Heilbronn.

! Paul Kenrick & Peter R. Crane: The origin and early evolution of plants on land. PDF file, Nature 1997.

! Hans Kerp, Palaeobotanical Research Group, Westfälische Wilhelms University, Münster: A History of Palaeozoic Forests. An introductory text with many helpful links directly related to the history of Palaeozoic forests. 7 chapters provide information about: The earliest land plants; Towards a tree-like growth habit; The earliest forests; The Carboniferous coal swamp forests; The floral change at the end of the Westphalian; Stefanian and Rotliegend floras; Is there a floral break in the Permian?

Michael Knee, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, Ohio State University: General Plant Biology, Horticulture and Crop Science 300, Online Resources. Go to: ANTHOPHYTA I, Evolution of flowering plants, and Evolution.

Michael Koltzenburg and Gerd Weitbrecht, Reutlingen, Germany: Floren- und Vegetationsgeschichte Plant evolution in a nutshell (DOC file, in German).

V.A. Krassilov (1997): Angiosperm Origins: Morphological and Ecological Aspects. PDF file (159 MB!), 270 p., (Pensoft), Sophia.

! U. U. Kutschera and K.J. Niklas (2004): The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis. PDF file, Naturwissenschaften, 91: 255-276.

Gerhard Leubner, The Seed Biology Place, University Freiburg, Germany: Seed evolution. Origin and evolution of the seed habit.

! C. Martín-Closas (2003): The fossil record and evolution of freshwater plants: a review. PDF file, Geologica Acta, 1: 315-338.

Patrick T. Martone et al. (2009): Discovery of Lignin in Seaweed Reveals Convergent Evolution of Cell-Wall Architecture. Abstract, Current Biology, Volume 19, Issue 2, 169-175. See also here.

C.I. Millar, Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Tertiary Vegetation History. PDF file.

Sebastian Molnar, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver: Evolution and the Origins of Life. A directory of introductions concerning evolution, with a bias to Plant Biology and Evolution. Excellent examples about how evolution works can be seen from the plant world. Go to: Angiosperm Origins and Evolution, or The Evolution of Polyploidy, and Summary: Polyploid Evolution.

Daniel L. Nickrent, Department of Plant Biology and Center for Systematic Biology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; Christopher L. Parkinson and Jeffrey D. Palmer, Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington; R. Joel Duff, Department of Biology, University of Akron: Parsimony and likelihood analyses of genes from all three subcellular genomes strongly support major land plant phylogenetic relationships. Article with illustrations.

Dan Nickrent and Karen Renzaglia, Department of Plant Biology, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale: Land Plants Online, Phylogenetic Relationships Among Land Plants - Overview. This page is designed to show the trees derived from various studies giving only the details of four termimals: tracheophytes, mosses, hornworts and liverworts. In other words, these diagrams are meant to show various competing hypotheses on the most basal relationships among land plants.

Karl Niklas, Plant Biology, Cornell University (page hosted by Access Excellence): Plant Evolution: Adaptation or Historical Accident?. See also here, and there.

Barry A. Palevitz, "Discovering Relatives in the Flowering Plant Family Tree". The Scientist, Volume 13, 1999: Search for: "flowering plant". Registration procedure required.

Tõnu Ploompuu, Biology, Tallinn Pedagogical University, Tallinn, Estonia: Resting and active evolution. Possible preadaptations in the early evolution of Angiosperms. See also here.

Ernst Probst, fossilien-news, Mainz-Kostheim, Germany: Rekorde der Urzeit aus der Pflanzenwelt (in German).

! Allister Rees, GEON SDSC Meeting Webcast Archive, San Diego Supercomputer Center: GEON SDSC Meeting, webcast live: Go to: Dinosaurs and More: Integration of the DINO and PGAP Databases (August 22, 2005). Biomes, climates and floral development from the Permian to the Jurassic.

Authored by the The Rhynie Chert Research Group, University of Aberdeen, with contributions and support by the Palaeobotanical Research Group, University of Münster, Germany, the Centre for Palynology, University of Sheffield, The Natural History Museum, London, and The Royal Museum, National Museums of Scotland: The Biota of Early Terrestrial Ecosystems, The Rhynie Chert. A resource site for students and teachers covering many aspects of the present knowledge of this unique geological deposit (including a glossary and bibliography pages). The website´s second part provides guidance for teachers in this subject area and as such will require a password to enter (obtainable from the authors).

Anita Roth-Nebelsick et al. (2001): Evolution and Function of Leaf Venation Architecture: A Review. PDF file, Annals of Botany 87: 553-566. See also here.

Gar W. Rothwell, Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH: Vascular Plant Morphology. This course covers the structure, development, reproductive biology and relationships of vascular plants. The course is structured to emphasize the evolutionary changes that led to the diversity of modern tracheophytes.

Gar W. Rothwell, Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens: Angiophytes: Using Whole Plant Concepts to Interpret Angiosperm Origins.

C. Schirarend and R. Vogt, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin-Dahlem: Von Nacktpflanzen und Schuppenbäumen - ein Streifzug durch die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Pflanzen. Part of the description of the exhibition "Stammesgeschichte der Pflanzen" (in German).

SciQuest.com: Geology, Evolution upset: Oxygen-making microbes came last, not first.

D.H. Scott (1909), President of the Linnean Society: Darwin and Modern Science: The Palaeontological Record: Plants. Website hosted by "The Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive".

! P.F. Stevens and Hilary Davis, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. The focus of this site is on angiosperms and emphasis is placed on plant families. You can also navigate from the Orders- or the Families-website. Go to:
EVOLUTION OF LAND PLANTS.

! Doug Soltis, Amber Tilley and Hongshan Wang, Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), University of Florida: Deep Time. A comprehensive phylogenetic tree of living and fossil angiosperms. Deep Time explore the ways in which angiosperm fossils can be appropriately integrated into the phylogenetic framework for extant taxa, with the ultimate goal of forming a comprehensive phylogenetic tree of living and fossil angiosperms. This includes the evaluation and prioritization of the fossil record, the critical appraisal of the age of fossils, the construction of a morphological data matrix for fossils and extant angiosperms, the integration of fossils into the angiosperm tree and the calibration of divergence times.

A.K. Srivastava, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, India: Taxonomy, palaeobotany and biodiversity About the angiosperm origin (PDF file, page 2). CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 81, NO. 10.

Hans Steur, Ellecom, The Netherlands: Hans´ Paleobotany Pages. Plant life from the Silurian to the Cretaceous. Go to:
The evolution of plants. A concise report of the development of the flora.

Ruth A. Stockey, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton: Paleobotany of Angiosperm Origins. Go to: Course Outline. Chiefly bibliographies and weblinks.

Paul K. Strother, Palaeobotany Laboratory, Weston Observatory, Department of Geology & Geophysics, Boston College, Weston, Massachusetts: Links to Resources in Paleobotany, go to: Lectures, "Cryptospores and the Origin of Land Plants" (Powerpoint presentation). Attention, 132 MB!

! Amber David W. Taylor and Leo J. Hickey (1996): Flowering Plant Origin, Evolution & Phylogeny. Google books (some pages omitted); American Institute of Biological Sciences (Springer), 404 pages.

Bruce H. Tiffney (University of California, Santa Barbara), Access Excellance, BioForum 4, "Theoretical Issues in Plant Biology". BioForum is a series of lectures, presented by California Academy of Sciences, in which scientists share their research results with high school biology teachers. The Influence of Plants on the Evolution of Terrestrial Communities. "The Influence of Plants on the Evolution of Terrestrial Communities" is a tour de force through some 450 million years of plant evolution, giving you a feeling for the life forms based on sequential evidence of the fossil records and a consideration of the climates and major physical events that prevail.

! Elizabeth Anne Viau, Charter College of Education, California State University, Los Angeles: World Builders, Session Eight, Terrestrial Botany, Plants on Land. Go to: Important Landmarks in the Evolution of Land Plants.

School of Science and Engineering, University of Waikato, New Zealand: Evolution for Teaching. Earth's History and Evolution. Teaching resources. Go to: Plant Evolution, Prokaryotes, Algae and Plants.

David T. Webb, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu: Plant Evolutionary Diversity. Lecture notes. See also: at Plant Evolution Review Article. PDF file, Graham et al. 2000.

! Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Evolution of plants,
Paleobotany,
Timeline of plant evolution,
Plant evolutionary developmental biology.

Kathy Willis, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, & Jenny McElwain, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (Oxford University Press): The Evolution of Plants. Book announcement. Go to: Chapter 06, Flowering plant origins (PDF file).

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Timeline of plant evolution (under construction).

Scott L. Wing and Lisa D. Boucher: ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE CRETACEOUS FLOWERING PLANT RADIATION.- Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 1998 26: 379-421. Full Online Access via Annual Reviews, Go to Annual Reviews Search Page (Biomedical Sciences), Search for "Wing" (Field Author, Last Name).

Top of page Links for Palaeobotanists

Search in all "Links for Palaeobotanists" Pages! index sitemap advanced site search by freefind