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).

A.J. Hetherington (2024): The role of fossils for reconstructing the evolution of plant development. Free access, The Company of Biologists, 151.
Note figure 1: Fossils indicate that roots and leaves evolved independently in vascular plants.
"... The focus of this Spotlight is to showcase the rich plant fossil record open for developmental interpretation and to cement the role that fossils play at a time when increases in genome sequencing and new model species make tackling major questions in the area of plant evolution and development tractable for the first time ..."

R.W. Gess and C. Berry (2024): Archaeopteris trees at high southern latitudes in the late Devonian. Open access, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 331.
"... Archaeopteris, the quintessential Late Devonian woody tree, has previously been identified at this locality on the basis of leafy branch system fragments, though some uncertainty has remained as to whether these represent tree sized organisms. Here we present co-occurring large axes, including a trunk base, attributable to Archaeopteris trees inferred to be in excess of 20 m height, the first demonstration of forest stature at high latitudes in the Devonian ..."

C.K. Boyce (2010): The evolution of plant development in a paleontological context. In PDF Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 13: 102-107.
See here as well.
"... Contrary to what might be expected from the observation of extant plants alone, the fossil record indicates that most aspects of vascular plant form evolved multiple times during their Paleozoic radiation. Opportunity is increasing to unite information from fossil and living plants to understand the evolution of developmental mechanisms ..."

! E.M. Carlisle et al. (2024): Ediacaran origin and Ediacaran-Cambrian diversification of Metazoa. Open access, Science Advances, 10. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp716.
"... The timescale of animal diversification has been a focus of debate over how evolutionary history should be calibrated to geologic time
[...] redating of key Ediacaran biotas and the discovery of several Ediacaran crown-Metazoa prompt recalibration of molecular clock analyses. We present revised fossil calibrations and use them in molecular clock analyses estimating the timescale of metazoan evolutionary history ..."

Y. Fernández-Jalvo et al. (2011): Taphonomy in palaeoecological interpretations. In PDF, Quaternary Science Reviews, 30: 1296-1302.
See likewise here.
"... Too often taphonomy is viewed as destructive processes biasing evidence of past life or restricting taxonomic diversity in the reconstruction of palaeoecology, but in reality it sheds light on circumstances of life and preservation of fossil organisms
[...] taphonomic modifications should be seen as providing a more dynamic view of the past rather than as destructive processes ..."

! C. Yu et al. (2024): Artificial intelligence in paleontology. Free access, Earth-Science Reviews, 252.
"... The accumulation of large datasets and increasing data availability have led to the emergence of data-driven paleontological studies
[...] In this study, we review >70 paleontological AI studies since the 1980s
[...] we discuss their methods, datasets, and performance and compare them with more conventional AI studies ..."

M. Shukla et al. (2024): A Comparative Study of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Free access, International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer Science and Technology, 12: 2347-5552. https://doi.org/10.55524/ijircst.2024.12.4.2.
"... This research work presents comparatively analysis of the three Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, namely ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity AI, based on the content generation, ownership and developing technology, context understanding, transparency, and information retrieval ..."

E.M. Knutsen and D.A. Konovalov (2024): Accelerating segmentation of fossil CT scans through Deep Learning. In PDF, Scientific Reports, 14.
See likewise here.
"... Recent developments in Deep Learning have opened the possibility for automated segmentation of large and highly detailed CT scan datasets of fossil material
[...] we present a method for automated Deep Learning segmentation to obtain high-fidelity 3D models of fossils digitally extracted from the surrounding rock, training the model with less than 1%-2% of the total CT dataset ..."

! J.P. Fortin and W.E. Friedman (2024): A stomate by any other name? The open question of hornwort gametophytic pores, their homology, and implications for the evolution of stomates. Free access, New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20094.
"... We explore the occurrence and diverse functions of stomates throughout the evolutionary history and diversity of extinct and extant embryophytes. We then address arguments for and against homology between known sporophyte- and gametophyte-borne stomates and HGPs [hornwort gametophytic pores] and conclude that there is little to no evidence that contradicts the hypothesis of homology ..."

F.-Y. Li et al. (2024): Arthropod coprolites and wound reaction in the late Paleozoic climbing fern Hansopteris. Free access, Palaeoentomology, 7: 628�637. DOI: 10.11646/palaeoentomology.7.5.6 .
"... Interactions between arthropods and plants have been documented extensively in late Paleozoic trees and ground cover plants, but they have rarely been recorded in late Paleozoic climbers
[...] This discovery provides an informative example of arthropod herbivory on late Paleozoic climbers and sheds light on how the host plant responded during the early stage of injury ..."

G.B. Vai (2007): A history of chronostratigraphy. PDF file, in: McGowran, B. (ed.): Beyond the GSSP: New Developments in Chronostratigraphy: Stratigraphy, 4: 173�185.

J.W. Clark et al. (2023): Evolution of phenotypic disparity in the plant kingdom. Open access, Nature Plants, 9: 1618-1626. See likewise here (in PDF).
"... Phenotypic complexity correlates not with disparity but with ploidy history, reflecting the role of genome duplication in plant macroevolution. Overall, the plant kingdom exhibits a pattern of episodically increasing disparity throughout its evolutionary history that mirrors the evolutionary floras and reflects ecological expansion facilitated by reproductive innovations ..."

Y. Na et al. (2024): Fossil charcoal from the Upper Triassic Karamay Formation in the Junggar Basin, NW China, and its geological implications. In PDF, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 321.
See likewise here.
"... The presence of fossil charcoal in Junggar Basin suggests that the paleoatmospheric oxygen level in northwest China during Late Triassic was above 13% or 15%, which is the minimum required for sustained burning of natural wildfires. This finding is in accordance with the paleoatmospheric oxygen concentration models on the basis of variations in inertinite content and Phanerozoic wildfire history combined with the phosphorus cycle ..."

A.B. Schwendemann (2024): A leaf economics analysis of high-latitude Glossopteris leaves using a technique to estimate leaf mass per area. Evolving Earth, 2.
"... An analysis of the leaf mass per area (LMA) of late Permian Glossopteris leaves from Antarctica gives several insights into how these fossil leaves fit into functional groups and habitats compared to extant plants.
[...] When combined with the known effects of high CO₂ and continuous light conditions on leaf LMA [leaf mass per area], the data suggest that the glossopterids living in these polar latitudes had seasonally deciduous leaves and adaptations that allowed them to thrive in a continuous light environment ..."