Paleobotany Glossary

Flowering plants that produce seeds enclosed within a fruit. They first appeared in the Early Cretaceous and rose to become the dominant plant group on Earth.

The correlation and dating of rock layers using characteristic fossil assemblages. In paleobotany, pollen zones and plant megafossils serve as key biostratigraphic markers.

A geological period (359-299 Ma) known for extensive coal-forming swamp forests, high atmospheric oxygen, giant insects, and the diversification of early seed plants.

A concretion of calcium carbonate or pyrite found in coal seams containing permineralized plant tissues that preserve cellular-level anatomy.

A fossil formed when organic material is flattened by sediment pressure, often retaining a carbonaceous film and sometimes preserving cuticle.

The waxy, protective outer layer of plant epidermal cells. Fossil cuticles preserve stomatal patterns and cell outlines, aiding identification and climate interpretation.

The science of dating events and environmental change by analyzing growth ring patterns in trees and fossil wood.

The southern supercontinent comprising modern South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia, whose existence was partly demonstrated by the distribution of the Glossopteris flora.

A group of seed-producing plants that do not enclose their seeds in fruits, including conifers, cycads, ginkgoes, and various extinct groups. They dominated terrestrial floras during the Mesozoic.

A fossil from a species that existed for a relatively short, well-defined time period and had wide geographic distribution, useful for dating and correlating rock layers.

A paleoclimate method based on the correlation between the percentage of entire-margined woody dicot species and mean annual temperature.

A group of vascular plants (clubmosses and their relatives) that include giant tree forms such as Lepidodendron and Sigillaria that dominated Carboniferous coal swamp forests.

A fossil large enough to be studied without a microscope, such as fossil leaves, wood, seeds, and cones, as distinguished from microfossils like pollen and spores.

A fossil too small to be studied without magnification. In paleobotany, pollen, spores, phytoliths, and diatoms are common microfossils.

A classification system based on morphological features of fossil organs. In paleobotany, separate organ genera are erected for different plant parts (e.g., leaf genus, seed genus) because they are rarely found attached.

The branch of paleontology concerned with the study of fossil plants and the reconstruction of ancient plant life and terrestrial ecosystems.

An indirect indicator preserved in the geological record that can be used to infer past climate conditions, such as leaf shape, stomatal density, tree ring width, or pollen assemblages.

The study of pollen grains, spores, and other acid-resistant microfossils (palynomorphs) for biostratigraphy, paleoclimate reconstruction, and vegetation history.

A process of fossilization in which mineral deposits fill the cellular spaces of organisms, preserving three-dimensional internal structure.

A general term for the fossilization process in which organic materials are replaced by or infilled with minerals, turning the original organism to stone while preserving structure.

Microscopic bodies of silica formed within living plant tissues that persist in soils and sediments after plant decay, providing evidence of past vegetation, especially grasses.

An Early Devonian (~410 Ma) silicified deposit in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, containing exceptionally preserved early land plants, fungi, and arthropods in cellular detail.

A highly resistant biopolymer composing the outer wall (exine) of pollen and spores, responsible for their exceptional preservation potential in the geological record.

The number of stomata per unit area on a leaf surface, which varies inversely with atmospheric CO2 concentration and is used as a paleoclimate proxy.

The study of the processes that affect organisms after death through burial, including decay, transport, and diagenesis. In paleobotany, taphonomy explains biases in the plant fossil record.