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).

! W.A. DiMichele et al. (2020): Uplands, lowlands, and climate: Taphonomic megabiases and the apparent rise of a xeromorphic, drought-tolerant flora during the Pennsylvanian-Permian transition. Abstract, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 559. See here as well (in PDF).
Note figure 7: Underground and surface coal mine exposures and wetland flora; fig. 7B: Sigillaria tree stump rooted in thin, unnamed Middle Pennsylvanian coal.
! Figure 8: Pennsylvanian landscape reconstructions.
"... In this paper, we present an alternative interpretation: that the apparent transition in Pennsylvanian-Permian tropical vegetation reflects two types of taphonomic megabias. First is a preservational megabias, strongly favoring the vegetation of humid climates over that of seasonally dry climates
[...] Second is an analytical megabias, strongly favoring the discovery and collection of the wetland biome from Pennsylvanian strata ..."

E.J. Spagnuolo et al. (2024): Reconstructing the Botanical Past: Art and Paleobotany. Free access, Plant Science Bulletin, 70. See also here.
Note figure 1: Representative examples of plant paleoart throughout history and modern plant-centered paleoart.

! D. Guo et al. (2020): Do you get the picture? A meta-analysis of the effect of graphics on reading comprehension Open access, AERA Open, 6.
"... the current meta-analytic study examined 39 experimental studies published between 1985 and 2018 measuring graphics� effects on readers� comprehension
[...] Our analysis revealed that the inclusion of graphics had a moderate overall positive effect
[...] we did not find a significant difference among pictures, pictorial diagrams, and flow diagrams ..."

! K. Karbstein et al. (2024): Species delimitation 4.0: integrative taxonomy meets artificial intelligence. Open access, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 39.
Note figure 1: Past to present to future developments in species delimitation approaches, including dataset descriptions and integration.
"... Although species are central units for biological research, recent findings in genomics are raising awareness that what we call species can be ill-founded entities due to solely morphology-based, regional species descriptions
[...] Now, integrative taxonomy combined with artificial intelligence under a unified species concept can enable automated feature learning and data integration, and thus reduce subjectivity in species delimitation ..."

J. Wäldchen and P. Mäder (2018): Plant species identification using computer vision techniques: a systematic literature review. Open access, Archives of computational methods in engineering, 25. See also here.
Note figure 1: Typical human and computer vision pipeline for species identification.
Figure 3: Basic architecture of convolutional neural network.
"... Accurate species identification is the basis for all aspects of taxonomic research and is an essential component of workflows in biological research
[...] In this paper, we focus on deep learning neural networks as a technology that enabled breakthroughs in automated species identification
[...] Artificial intelligence systems will provide alternative tools for taxonomic identification in the near future..."

! R.A. Spicer et al. (2021): Woody dicot leaf traits as a palaeoclimate proxy: 100 years of development and application. Abstract, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 562. See likewise here.
"... we review ways of using plant form to reconstruct, quantitatively, past climates, focussing on techniques that have been developed over the past century [...] We discuss different ways of understanding and decoding climate from leaf form in multidimensional trait space, and provide an over-view of CLAMP applications for tracking climate change ..."

Q. Liu et al. (2025): Volcanic fertilization of Late Triassic lacustrine algal blooms. Open access, Communications Earth & Environment, 6.
"... we demonstrate volcanic fertilization effects on a Late Triassic lacustrine ecosystem based on micropaleontological and geochemical records from the Yanchang Formation of North China- Frequent eruptions of a regional volcanic arc system increased cyanobacterial populations and organic carbon sinking fluxes ..."

P. Wilf and R.M. Kooyman (2025): Paleobotany reframes the fiery debate on Australia's rainforest edges. Open access, New Phytologist, 245: 1355�1365. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20301.
"... We recommend revised management policies to re-establish the natural dynamics and demographics of the interface zone, prioritizing both natural rainforest recovery and the integrity of TEFs [tall eucalypt forests], with reduced logging to allow mixed forests with charismatic and ecologically significant giant eucalypts to reemerge ..."

B. Schröder and E. Welzel (1966): Exkursionsführer im Keuper der Hassberge. PDF file, in German. Geologische Blätter für Nordost-Bayern und angrenzende Gebiete, 16: 139-152.

B. Stojilkovic and M. Gray (2024): Geodiversification: The evolution of geodiversity through time. Open access, Geoheritage, 16. See also here (in PDF).
"... The paper firstly reviews the biodiversification definition and some of its major events including the Cambrian explosion and Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) and suggests that being palaeontological, these can also be regarded as geodiversification events. In relation to that, the paper defines geodiversification and provides examples of important geodiversification events in the Earth�s history ..."

Z.H. Ipek et al. (2023): Educational Applications of the ChatGPT AI System: A Systematic Review Research. Educational Process, 12: 26-55. See here as well.
"... the current study reviews the literature in order to reveal the potential effects of ChatGPT on education as a whole
[...] this review revealed the critical applications of ChatGPT for educational settings and the potential negative impact of its application ..."

! X. Zhang et al. (2025): Fossil leaf cuticle: Best practices for preparation and paleo-CO₂ analysis. In PDF, Earth-Science Reviews, 264. See likewise here.
"... we attempt to synthesize a breadth of existing workflows and make recommendations to guide methodological decision-making for new studies, with a particular focus on paleo-CO₂ reconstruction
[...] We describe and annotate chemical procedures for preparing cuticles for analysis and include recommendations regarding leaf conditions for which each is most appropriate ..."

Office of Undergraduate Research, Washington University, St. Louis, MO:
Making a Poster.

Plant Diversity.
Plant Diversity (formerly Plant Diversity and Resources) is an international plant science journal that publishes substantial original research and review papers that advance our understanding of the past and current distribution of plants.

The American Geological Institute (AGI):
! The GeoRef database.
The GeoRef database covers the geology of North America from 1666 to the present and the geology of the rest of the world from 1933 to the present. The database includes references to all publications of the U.S. Geological Survey.

P. Huang et al. (2025): The smallest Zosterophyllum plant from the Lower Devonian of South China and the divergent life-history strategies in zosterophyllopsids. Open access, Proc. R. Soc. B, 292.
Note figure 2: Diversity and morphology of Zosterophyllum species through the late Silurian to Early Devonian.
! Figure 4: Artist�s restoration of part of the Early Devonian Mangshan flora, with plant communities of Zosterophyllum baoyangense sp. nov. at the front, and Teyoua antrorsa, Zosterophyllum australianum and an unnamed zosterophyllopsid to the back.

! J.W. Clark (2025): Assembling the picture of stomatal evolution. Free accesss, New Phytologist, 245: 6-8.
Note figure 1: Predicted distribution of stomata on the gametophyte and sporophyte generation across land plants, assuming that Hornwort Gametophytic Pores (HGPs) are homologous to stomata.
"... The origin of plants from an algal ancestor involved a suite of innovations that facilitated the process of terrestrialisation and characterised most plants today ,,,"