UID:
almafu_9960118564702883
Format:
1 online resource (viii, 246 pages) :
,
digital, PDF file(s).
Edition:
Second edition.
ISBN:
1-108-60247-9
,
1-108-62475-8
,
1-108-65002-3
Content:
Plant remains can preserve a critical part of history of life on Earth. While telling the fascinating evolutionary story of plants and vegetation across the last 500 million years, this book also crucially offers non-specialists a practical guide to studying, dealing with and interpreting plant fossils. It shows how various techniques can be used to reveal the secrets of plant fossils and how to identify common types, such as compressions and impressions. Incorporating the concepts of evolutionary floras, this second edition includes revised data on all main plant groups, the latest approaches to naming plant fossils using fossil-taxa and techniques such as tomography. With extensive illustrations of plant fossils and living plants, the book encourages readers to think of fossils as once-living organisms. It is written for students on introductory or intermediate courses in palaeobotany, palaeontology, plant evolutionary biology and plant science, and for amateurs interested in studying plant fossils.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 28 Jun 2019).
,
Cover -- Half-title -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- What is a plant? -- How do plant fragments get into the fossil record? -- Types of plant fossil -- Where are plant fossils found? -- Bias in the fossil record -- Why do we study plant fossils? -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 2 Highlights of palaeobotanical study -- The beginnings of palaeobotany -- The importance of coal -- Anatomical studies -- Coal balls -- Coal petrology and palynology -- The Glossopteris flora and continental drift -- Early land plants -- The age of cycads -- Flowering plants -- The future for palaeobotany -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 3 Studying plant fossils -- Morphology of adpressions -- Macrophotography -- Transfers -- Cuticles and epidermal structures -- Extracting in situ pollen and spores -- Dispersed pollen and spores -- Three-dimensionally preserved plant fossils -- Prepared casts -- Tomography -- Sectioning anatomically preserved fossils -- Mathematical techniques -- Naming plant fossils -- Reconstructing whole fossil plants -- Phylogenetic analysis -- Biostratigraphy and palaeobiogeography -- Curation -- Site conservation -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 4 Early land plants -- Alternating generations -- Adapting to life on land -- Cryptospores and the earliest land plants -- The first vascular plants -- The Rhynie Chert flora -- Zosterophylls -- Trimerophytes -- Progymnosperms -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 5 Lycophytes -- The earliest herbaceous lycophytes -- The beginnings of modern herbaceous lycophytes -- Increase in size and arborescence -- Cuticles and paper coal -- Rooting structures -- Reproduction -- Lycophyte palaeoecology in the Coal Measures swamps -- After the giants -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 6 Sphenophytes -- Origin and systematic position of the sphenophytes.
,
Pseudoborniales -- Sphenophyllales -- Archaeocalamitaceae -- Calamostachyaceae -- Gondwana sphenophytes -- Modern sphenophytes -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 7 Ferns -- The first ferns -- Modern ferns -- Marattiales -- Other Late Palaeozoic ferns -- Ophioglossales -- Filicalean ferns -- Osmundaceae -- Schizaeaceae -- Gleicheniaceae -- Matoniaceae -- Dipteridaceae -- Color plates -- Dicksoniaceae and Cyatheaceae -- Polypodiaceous ferns -- Tempskya -- Heterosporous ferns -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 8 Early gymnosperms -- What are ovules and seeds? -- Gymnosperm reproduction -- What plants did gymnosperms evolve from? -- The pteridosperms -- Lyginopteridales -- Medullosales -- Callistophytales -- Peltasperms -- Glossopterids -- Cordaites -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 9 Modern gymnosperms -- Early conifers -- Modern conifers -- Ginkgoales -- Cycads -- Bennettitales -- Caytoniales -- Other gymnosperm groups -- Gnetales -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 10 Angiosperms -- What makes an angiosperm? -- Wood -- Ancestors of the angiosperms -- The earliest angiosperms -- Cretaceous angiosperms -- Wind-pollinated angiosperms -- The rise of the monocotyledons -- Cenozoic angiosperms -- Recommended reading -- Chapter 11 The history of land vegetation -- Evolutionary floras -- Rhyniophytic Evolutionary Flora -- Eophytic Evolutionary Flora -- Palaeophytic Evolutionary Flora -- Mesophytic Evolutionary Flora -- Cenophytic Evolutionary Flora -- Plants - the great survivors -- Recommended reading -- References -- Index.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 1-108-48344-5
Language:
English
URL:
Volltext
(from Cambridge Books Online)
URL:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108650021
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