Links for Palaeobotanists 1

An annotated collection of pointers to information on palaeobotany
or to WWW resources which may be of use to palaeobotanists (with an Upper Triassic bias).

Y. Liu et al. (2025): Artificial Intelligence in Paleobotany and Palynology. In PDF, Geological Journal See likewise here.
Note table 1: Development of artificial intelligence in palynology studies from the 1980s to 2025.
"... The integration of AI, encompassing expert systems, neural networks, support vector machines, and other machine learning algorithms, has significantly automated a variety of paleontological research workflows. The application of AI in paleobotany involves multiple aspects such as image classification, image segmentation and prediction ..."

M. Rigo et al. (2024): Unveiling a new oceanic anoxic event at the Norian/Rhaetian boundary (Late Triassic). Open access, Scientific reports, 14. See here as well.
"... The latest Triassic was characterised by protracted biotic extinctions concluding in the End-Triassic Extinction (~200 Ma) and a global carbon cycle perturbation. The onset of declining diversity is closely related to reducing conditions that spread globally from upper Sevatian (uppermost Norian) to across the Norian-Rhaetian boundary, likely triggered by unusually high volcanic activity ..."

! M. Zaffani et al. (2017): The Norian �chaotic carbon interval�: New clues from the d13Corg record of the Lagonegro Basin (southern Italy). Free access, Geosphere, 13.
"... We reconstruct the global d¹³C_org profile for the late Norian, improving on sparse published data from North American successions
[...] The carbon-isotope profiles show four negative excursions
[...] a negative shift close to the Norian/Rhaetian boundary (NRB) appears to correlate with that observed in the North American d¹³C_org record, documenting the widespread occurrence of this carbon cycle perturbation
[...] three Late Triassic igneous provinces may have caused extreme environmental and climate changes during the Late Triassic ..."

Elaine R.S. Hodges (ed.), Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (U.S.):
The Guild Handbook of Scientific Illustration, 2nd Edition, (2003). 656 pages, (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). This is an indispensable reference guide for anyone who produces, assigns, or simply appreciates scientific illustration.
See also here. Retrieved from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
! Some chapters are available via Google books.

Z. Wei et al. (2025): Resolving the stasis-dynamism paradox: Genome evolution in tree ferns. Open access, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 42.
"... Our findings redefine evolutionary stasis as a dynamic equilibrium, sustained by regulatory plasticity and localized genomic innovation within a conserved morphological framework. This study offers a novel genomic perspective on the long-term persistence and evolution of ancient plant lineages ..."

! F.E. Charles et al. (2025): The influence of changing fire regimes on specialized plant�animal interactions. Open access, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 380: 20230448.
Note figure 1: Plant and animal morphological, behavioural and reproductive traits involved in specialized plant�animal interactions in fire-prone ecosystems.
"... In this review, we identified mutualistic (pollination, seed dispersal and food provision), commensal (habitat provision) and antagonistic (seed predation, herbivory and parasitism) plant�animal interactions from fire-prone ecosystems
[...] Our synthesis reveals how fire regime changes impact fire-dependent specialist plant�animal interactions and potentially drive eco-evolutionary dynamics in fire-prone ecosystems globally ..."

Scanning.
Scanning ceased publishing as of September 2024. All content published in this journal will remain available to access.

R. Rath and V. Raghunath (2021): Peels as an alternative to ground sections�An in vitro microscopic study. In PDF, Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, 25: 1-36. DOI: 10.4103/jomfp.JOMFP_99_20.
See here as well.
"... The current study was taken up to explore the usefulness of cellulose acetate peels in reproducing microscopic structures of teeth ..."

T. Gunzelmann: Steinlandschaften - wo die Bamberger Bausteine herkommen. PDF file, in German. About some Franconian sandstone quarries from the Germanic Triassic Keuper.
Retrieved from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

! H.M. Anderson et al. (2019): Umkomasia (megasporophyll): part 1 of a reassessment of Gondwana Triassic plant genera and a reclassification of some previously attributed. In PDF, Alcheringa, 43: 43�70. DOI: 10.1080/03115518.2018.1554748. See likewise here.
Note figure 1: Strobili of Umkomasia and ex-Umkomasia.
! Figure 3: Key to Umkomasia species.
"... The genus Umkomasia, a megasporophyll, belonging to the pteridosperms (seed ferns) in the family Umkomasiaceae (Corystospermaceae), is reassessed comprehensively worldwide
[...] Umkomasia is shown to be restricted to the Triassic of Gondwana where it is associated with the genus Pteruchus, a microsporophyll, and the genus Dicroidium, a vegetative leaf ..."

! N.S. Heckeberg et al. (2025): Practical guide and review of fossil tip-dating in phylogenetics. Open access, Systematic Biology.
"... we provide an extensive review and overview of methods and models for phylogenetic tip-dating analyses with fossils.
[...] We start with a survey of all published phylogenetic tip-dating studies to date, showing common data and modeling choices as well as trends toward new approaches. Then, we walk readers through sections of molecular evolution, morphological evolution ..."

! L. Xiao et al. (2025): The modern pattern of insect herbivory predates the advent of angiosperms by 60 My. Free access, PNAS, 122.
Note figure 1: The richness of DTs and FFGs [functional feeding group�damage types] for 131 fossil plant assemblages and three modern plant assemblages.
! Figure 6: Global features relevant to the pattern of terrestrial arthropod herbivory from the Late Pennsylvanian to modern time, representing 305 My.
"... To understand the antiquity of modern patterns of terrestrial arthropod herbivory, functional feeding group�damage type (FFG-DT) data were used to analyze a 305 My interval from Late Pennsylvanian to present ..."

F.R. Blattmann et al. (2025): Wildfire, ecosystem, and climate interactions in the Early Triassic. Free access, Communications Earth & Environment
See here as well (in PDF).
"... we explore wildfire during the Early Triassic (Smithian and Spathian, ca. 250 million years ago) � a time interval characterized by scarce fire evidence, perturbation of the carbon cycle, climatic oscillations, vegetation succession and biotic radiationextinction pulses � using polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which are an organic (geo)chemical fire indicator in sediments ..."

J.N. Lallensack et al. (2025): Glossary of fossil tetrapod tracks. Free access. Palaeontologia Electronica, 28. https://doi.org/10.26879/1389.

C.G. De Francesco et al. (2025): The rise of Actualistic Taphonomy in South America. In PDF, Publicación Electrónica de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina. In PDF, See here as well.
"... Over the past four decades, global actualistic taphonomy studies have grown significantly
[...] This review underscores the significant progress made in South American actualistic taphonomy but also points to underrepresented environments and taxonomic groups ..."

A. Aisch et al. (2025): Palaeo-bioinspiration draws on the fossil record to advance innovation. Open access, communications biology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08043-6. See likewise here (in PDF).
"... Bioinspiration is an approach to innovation based on the observation of biological systems
[...] Expanding the scope of bioinspiration to the fossil record greatly increases the diversity of potential biological �muses� and provides a means to understand the form, function and origins of current living systems ..."

J. Barabach (2025): Has Quaternary palynology reached its climax? Open access, The Holocene, 35. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836251332807.
Note figure 7: Mean Total Citation per Article (MeanTCperArt). Significant decline in citations in last years.
Figure 13: Annual scientific production of documents containing the following keywords: �palaeoecology�, �pollen analysis�, �climate reconstruction�, �vegetation history� and �palaeobotany�. Only �climate reconstruction� shows an upward trend.
"... Bibliometric analysis allows to distinguish different phases in the evolution of palynology.
[...] the scientometric analysis of palynological documents suggests that in the second decade of the 20th century, the increasing trend of the number of published documents stopped ..."

A. Molina-Solís et al. (2025): About the diversification and heyday of Palaeophytic flora: new data and perspectives. Abstract, Historical Biology. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2025.2571750. See here as well.
Note figure 1: Approximate palaeogeographical distribution (dashed line) of four main phytochoria, and climatic zones (dotted line).
"... A new compilation of late Palaeozoic plant families has been analysed
[...] The results reveal the major vegetation changes in Mississippian to Guadalupian times, including the Palaeophytic�Mesophytic flora transition. Palaeophytic vegetation was globally dominated by lycopsids and filicopsids, but these groups underwent high extinction rates
[...] global diversities were maintained by increased origination rates with the expansion of the replacing Mesophytic vegetation ..."

! S. McLoughlin (2022): The history of palaeobotanical research at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. In PDF. Retrieved from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
"... The Palaeobotany Department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History was established in the late 1800s
[...] Now under the management of just its sixth administrative Head since 1884, the department is forging new pathways in palaeobotanical research utilizing cutting-edge technologies to provide advances in plant systematics, phylogeny, biogeography, biostratigraphy, palaeoenvironmental analysis, plant-animal interactions, and fossil fungal/microbial studies ..."

H. Nguyen et al. (2025): Integrating Plant Fossil Proxies and Biomarkers to Reconstruct Deep-Time Paleoclimate. In PDF, Scientific Research Journal of Biology and Life Science, 3.
"... By bridging fossil morphology with organic geochemical signatures, we provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing climate fluctuations, vegetation dynamics, and biotic responses to major global events across Earth history. We emphasize methodological innovations ..."