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).

! F. Westall and S. Xiao (2024): Precambrian Earth: Co-evolution of life and geodynamics. Free access, Precambrian Research, 414.
! Note figure 1: Evolution of Earth�s atmosphere through time.
Figure 4: Microbially induced sedimentary structures.

Charles H. Smith (Library Public Services, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green), Joshua Woleben, and Carubie Rodgers:
Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches. Go to:
Listing by Discipline. Scroll down to "paleobotany", or "botany" (including palaeobotany).
Websites outdated. Links lead to versions archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! M. Laaß et al. (2025): Host-specific leaf-mining behaviour of holometabolous insect larvae in the early Permian. Open access, Scientific reports, 15. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15413-x. See here as well.
Note figure 5: Co-occurrence of endophytic oviposition and Asteronomus maeandriformis in Autunia conferta.
"... We re-examined the controversial feeding trace of Asteronomus maeandriformis
[...] Our results unequivocally show that endophytic feeding behaviour evolved in the holometabolan clade at least by the earliest Permian and, therefore, more than 40 Ma earlier than hypothesised. The findings reveal complex organism interactions in late Palaeozoic ecosystems ..."

Sophia Kossida, Principles of Protein Structure Using the Internet:
Molecular Phylogenetics.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Q. Fu et al. (2024): Unique Jurassic ovaries shed a new light on the nature of carpels. Open access, Plants, 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13162239.
"... A recently raised hypothesis stated that a carpel is a composite organ derived from an ovule-bearing axis and a subtending and enclosing leaf
[...] we report a new fruit/ovary, Xenofructus dabuensis gen. et sp. nov, from the Middle Jurassic of Liaoning, China. Surprisingly, these Jurassic ovaries clearly demonstrate the existence of free central placentation in early angiosperms. It appears that this new fossil provides a new insight into the evolution of placentation in angiosperms ..."

Anna-Lena Anderberg, Department of Palaeobotany, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm:
Rhaetian and Jurassic plants of Scania. This database includes the Rhaetian and Jurassic plant fossils from Scania, southern Sweden, housed in the Stockholm collections.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

University of Oregon Eugene, OR.
! Electron Probe Micro Analysis Course Materials. This course (for Mineralogy, Petrology and Materials Science) is a laboratory course covering the theory and application of EPMA (electron probe micro analysis) and SEM (scanning electron microscopy) as an integrated and multi-disciplinary subject covering aspects of physics, chemistry, geology and statistics plus practical hands-on experience with the instruments themselves. See for example:
1 Introduction to the EPMA/SEM laboratory: An introduction to the technique followed by a short tour of the facilities, including discussion of lecture notes and suggested reading materials.
10 Statistics: The essential key to scientific analysis.
13 Digital Imaging (Lecture and Lab): Imaging and mapping: An overview of electron and x-ray imaging and mapping techniques.
Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentations.

S.P. Xie et al. (2009): Altitudinal variation in Ginkgo leaf characters: Clues to paleoelevation reconstruction. PDF file, Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences, 52: 2040-2046. See likewise here.
"... The results show that leaf area, petiole length, and stomatal parameters have no obvious linear relationship with altitude (...). The results also suggest that the differences in stomatal density and stomatal index between sun and shade leaves had more influence on paleoelevation reconstruction than that in other parameters ..."

C.T. Gee and M.M. Howell (2024): International Workshop on Fossilization. In PDF, Terra Nostra, DFG Research Unit FOR 2685 at the University of Bonn, Germany June 14-17, 2024.

American Journal of Botany.
The American Journal of Botany (AJB), published by the Botanical Society, is the Society�s flagship research journal.

F. Battista and C.L. Schultz (2024): Sampling and collector biases as taphonomic filters: an overview. Open access, Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 96. https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765202420231242. See also here (in PDF).
Note figure 1: Conceptual map of the factors determining biases in the fossil record and palaeontological collections.
Figure 2: Conceptual map of further anthropogenic biases that lead to the loss, even definitive, of taphonomic information and consequent biased results.

! C.C. Loron et al. (2025): Prototaxites was an extinct lineage of multicellular terrestrial eukaryotes bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.14.643340.
"... We report that Prototaxites taiti was the largest organism in the Rhynie ecosystem and its anatomy was fundamentally distinct from all known extant or extinct fungi. Furthermore, our molecular composition analysis indicates that cell walls of P. taiti include aliphatic, aromatic, and phenolic components most similar to fossilisation products of lignin, but no fossilisation products characteristic of chitin or chitosan, which are diagnostic of all groups of extant and extinct fungi
[...] Prototaxites was not a fungus ..."

! J.E.A. Marshall et al. (2025): Terrestrial palaeoclimate, mercury, atmospheric CO₂ and land plants through the Late Devonian mass extinction. Free access, Journal of the Geological Society, 182.
"... a highly expanded terrestrial section from East Greenland is reported, which includes records of palaeoenvironment, palaeoclimate, carbon isotopes from plant debris, sedimentary mercury and plant spores
[...] The Heintzbjerg section is the first record from a terrestrial F-F [Frasnian�Famennian] Late Devonian mass extinction ..."

! L. Liu et al. (2025): Ordovician marine Charophyceae and insights into land plant derivations. In PDF, Nature Plants. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02003-y.
See here as well.
Note figure 4: Morphological and palaeoecological reconstructions of Tarimochara miraclensis gen. et sp. nov.
Figure 6: Outline of the early Palaeozoic record of streptophyte algae and embryophytes.
"... This discovery demonstrates that at least some species of Charophyceae inhabited shallow normal marine environments at that time. Moreover, these early Charophyceae show that some key morphological innovations associated with an evolutionary transition between streptophyte algae and land plants had occurred before the early Katian ..."