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).

! M. Yaqoob et al. (2025): Advancing paleontology: a survey on deep learning methodologies in fossil image analysis. In PDF, Artificial Intelligence Review, 58. See also here.
Note figure 3: The timeline presents the evolution from traditional manual identification to the incorporation of AI in paleontology.
"... we comprehensively review state-of-the-art deep learning based methodologies applied to fossil analysis, grouping the studies based on the fossil type and nature of the task
[...] Finally, we discuss novel techniques for fossil data augmentation and fossil image enhancements ..."

M.A.D. During et al. (2024): Automated segmentation of synchrotron-scanned fossils. In PDF, bioRxiv.
See here as well.
"... we present a free, browser-based segmentation tool that reduces computational overhead by splitting volumes into small chunks
[...] Beyond the online tool, all our code is open source, enabling contributions from the palaeontology community to further this emerging machine learning ecosystem ..."

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 ..."

Martin C. Mathes, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA:
General Botany. This course is designed to give the students a broad background in the traditional subject matter of botany. This includes topics on organisms in the plant kingdom as well as organisms not in the plant kingdom but which affect the growth ecology or evolution of plants (e.g., selected bacteria, fungi, and selected protists).
Now recovered from the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

R.J. Knecht et al. (2024): Early Pennsylvanian Lagerstätte reveals a diverse ecosystem on a subhumid, alluvial fan. Open access, Nature Communications, 15. See likewise here.
"... We know relatively little about terrestrial ecosystems from the Early Pennsylvanian, which was a critical interval for the diversification of insects, arachnids, tetrapods, and seed plants
[...] Here we report a diverse Early Pennsylvanian trace and body fossil Lagerstätte (~320�318 Mya) from the Wamsutta Formation of eastern North America
[...] This site expands our knowledge of early terrestrial ecosystems and organismal interactions and provides ground truth for future phylogenetic reconstructions of key plant, arthropod, and vertebrate groups ..."

! Brittannica, Branches of Biology:
phylogeny.
"... the history of the evolution of a species or group, especially in reference to lines of descent and relationships among broad groups of organisms ..."

! Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Lexikon der Biologie (in German):
Phylogenie.
"... Phylogenese, Stammesentwicklung, Stammesgeschichte, der einmalige historische Ablauf der Aufspaltung (Cladogenese) und der meist mit Höherentwicklung (Anagenese), bisweilen aber auch mit Rückbildungen (regressive Evolution) einhergehenden Entwicklung der Lebewesen (Organismen) im Laufe der Erdgeschichte ..."

! J. Dal Corso (2025): Carnian Events. In PDF, Albertiana, 49: 1�11.
"... The Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE; Late Triassic) was an interval of C-cycle perturbations, global warming and biological turnover, occurring between ca. 234 and 232 Ma. The C-cycle perturbations are recorded as discrete sharp negative C-isotope excursions (NCIEs) in marine and terrestrial sedimentary successions around the world, and at least two warming phases are shown by O-isotope data from conodont apatite ..."

Albertiana (The Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy).
The primary mission of Albertiana is to promote the interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding among members of the Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy and the Triassic community at large. In its new hybrid digital form, Albertiana publishes peer-reviewed original research articles, literature reviews, meeting announcements and commentary relevant to the Triassic community and in particular the development of Triassic stratigraphy and its time scale. Worth checking out:
Past Issues.
Albertiana past issues are likewise available from Geobiology.cn.
Scans of the rare early volumes of Albertiana! The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

The Global Triassic Alburquerque, May 2007 (S.G. Lucas and J.A. Spielmann).
A Joint Meeting of the IGCP Project 467 and the Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy, hosted by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. There are plenty of Triassic field guides from the American West (Bulletin 40, in PDF). Excellent!
This expired link is still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! L.P.A. Mulvey et al. (2025): From fossils to phylogenies: exploring the integration of paleontological data into Bayesian phylogenetic inference. Open access, Paleobiology, 51: 214�236.
Note figure 2: The temporal range, based on the oldest fossil age to the tips of the tree from each of the empirical studies in the literature survey.
"... Phylogenetic analysis of fossil data has been significantly aided by the introduction of the fossilized birth�death (FBD) process
[...] A decade on from the first implementation of the FBD model, we explore its use in more than 170 empirical studies
[...] Through this review, we aim to provide clarity on how paleontological data can best be used in phylogenetic inference ..."

C.W. Crowley (2012):
An Atlas Of Cenozoic Climate Zones. In PDF, Master thesis, Faculty of the Graduate School, University of Texas, Arlington.
See also here.

! M.A. Qureshi and M. Deriche (2015): A bibliography of pixel-based blind image forgery detection techniques. Signal Processing: Image Communication. Note also here.
"... The paper can be seen as a major attempt to provide an up-to-date overview of the research work carried in this allimportant field of multimedia ..."

! A. Cuccu et al. (2025): Hard tissue thin-sectioning techniques in vertebrate paleohistology: Review, synthesis and improvements. Open access, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 16: 66-83.
Note table 1: Material used in the thinsectioning process.
"... The guide provided herein covers the techniques necessary to produce a paleohistological thin section, providing step-by-step instructions along with insights for technicians and both beginners and experienced scientists ..."

Museum Terra Triassica, Euerdorf, Germany (in German).
This museum in Lower Franconia, Bavaria, was founded by Michael Henz, Horst K. Mahler, Bernd Neubig, Jürgen Sell and is now part of the community Markt Euerdorf. It is a museum specialising in the Germanic Triassic of the Central European Basin. See especially:
! Trias-Literatur / Bibliothek (in German).
The link directory Triassic Literature Online generally does not contain its own PDFs but offers direct links to freely accessible literature. Arranged by authors in alphabetical order. Excellent!

! G.J. Retallack (2025): Darwinian soil evolution: A review. Free access, Habitable Planet, 2025, 1: 43�55. See likewise here (in PDF).
Note figure 2: Early Paleozoic plant and soil coevolution from 539 to 299 million years ago.
! Figure 3: Evolution of soil orders of the US Taxonomy over the past 4500 million years, as revealed by the paleosols.

! C.K. Boyce and M.P. Nelsen (2025): Terrestrialization: toward a shared framework for ecosystem evolution. In PDF, Paleobiology, 51: 174-194. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2024.15: See here as well.
Note figure 1: Molecular clock dates and expectations for the fossil record.
Figure 3: Fungal phylogeny, distribution of ecologies, and proportional representation of different lineages in the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert versus the modern world.
Figure 5: Stratigraphic distribution of fossil first occurrences in the land plant record.

! Y. Song et al. (2024): Lightning-induced wildfires: An overview. Open access, Fire, 7.
"... This review presents information that gives a profound understanding of lightning-induced wildfires, especially factors that influence lightning wildfires, and the state-of-the-art research that has been completed to understand lightning-induced wildfires ..."

A.B. Frank et al. (2025): Oxic conditions in shallow marine settings during the Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction. Free access, EarthArXiv, https://doi.org/10.31223/X5K135.
"... The concept that ultra-shallow marine anoxia was a major cause of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction was partly based on sections from the Dolomites (Italy). We test this hypothesis by re-examining the Dolomites record, utilizing an updated redox sensitive trace metal (V, U and 22 Mo) approach, combined with Fe speciation and Th/U ratios, and paleontological observations ..."

James D. Mauseth, Integrative Biology, University of Texas: Plant Anatomy Laboratory:
Micrographs of plant cells and tissues. With explanatory text.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

R. Barclay, P. Wilf, D. Dilcher, A. Sokoloff, J. Leon-Guerrero & C. Thurman: Cuticle Database. The Cuticle Database Project aims to promote the understanding and identification of living and fossil plants. This project is a collaborative effort between researchers at Northwestern University, The Field Museum, the Florida Museum of Natural History, and Pennsylvania State University. Note especially:
! R. Barclay, et al. (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.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

J.J. Wiens and Z. Emberts (2025): How life became colourful: colour vision, aposematism, sexual selection, flowers, and fruits. In PDF, Biological Reviews, doi: 10.1111/brv.13141.
See likewise here.
"... Colourful flowers likely evolved ~200 million years ago (Mya), whereas colourful fruits/seeds likely evolved ~300 Mya. Colour vision (sensu lato) appears to be substantially older, and likely originated ~400�500 Mya in both arthropods and chordates ..."