Paleobotany is the branch of plant sciences that investigates fossil plants and plant-related remains to reconstruct past floras, ecosystems, and environmental conditions through geological time. It integrates methods from stratigraphy, sedimentology, systematics, and morphology to analyze compression fossils, permineralizations, mummifications, palynomorphs, and phytoliths. Paleobotanists use comparative morphology and, where possible, phylogenetic frameworks to infer evolutionary relationships, diversification patterns, and major transitions in plant history, such as the origin of vascular tissues, seeds, and angiosperms. The discipline also provides quantitative and qualitative proxies for paleoclimate, paleoecology, and biogeographic reconstructions, informing models of Earth system evolution and long-term biosphere–geosphere interactions.
Paleontologists, including researchers from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN), have described the oldest insect larval feeding tunnels inside leaves, also known as leaf mines, along with associated egg deposits, based ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 2, 2025
0
314
A new discovery from researchers at Northeastern University has uncovered previously unknown aspects of plant evolution, with major implications for creating new lifesaving drugs.
Evolution
Aug 18, 2025
0
185
Brazilian paleobotany has just solved an enigma: the redefinition of a fossil plant described decades ago in southern Brazil and the creation of a new genus, Franscinella, to accommodate the species now called Franscinella ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 13, 2025
0
292
Fossils are the backbone—oftentimes literally—of researching the far past. And because most of human evolution took place throughout Africa, the fossils the continent holds are vital to piecing together early human history. ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 11, 2025
0
305
The endangered South African cycad Encephalartos horridus may resemble a relic from the Jurassic age, but the species itself evolved long after dinosaurs disappeared. Still, it carries a biochemical legacy inherited from ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 8, 2025
0
164
Evolutionary plant biologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) have identified a protein that evolved approximately 500 million years ago, enabling plants to convert light into energy through photosynthesis as they moved ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 31, 2025
0
30
Imagine a lush forest with tree-ferns, their trunks capped by ribbon-like fronds. Conifers tower overhead, bearing triangular leaves almost sharp enough to pierce skin. Flowering plants are both small and rare.
Ecology
Jun 17, 2025
0
242
New research reveals that shifts in plant life played a key role in speeding up major climate changes during the late Miocene, a period spanning 11.6 to 5.3 million years ago.
Earth Sciences
May 2, 2025
0
73
