Paleobotany
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Paleobotany, also spelled as palaeobotany (from the Greek words paleon = old and "botany", study of plants), is the branch of paleontology or paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeography), and both the evolutionary history of plants, with a bearing upon the evolution of life in general. A synonym is paleophytology. Paleobotany includes the study of terrestrial plant fossils, as well as the study of prehistoric marine photoautotrophs, such as photosynthetic algae, seaweeds or kelp. A closely related field is palynology, which is the study of fossilized and extant spores and pollen.
Paleobotany is important in the reconstruction of ancient ecological systems and climate, known as paleoecology and paleoclimatology respectively; and is fundamental to the study of green plant development and evolution. Paleobotany has also become important to the field of archaeology, primarily for the use of phytoliths in relative dating and in paleoethnobotany.
The emergence of paleobotany as a scientific discipline can be seen in the early 19th century, especially in the works of the German palaeontologist Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim, the Czech (Bohemian) nobleman and scholar Kaspar Maria von Sternberg, and the French botanist Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart.
Notable paleobotanists
- Edward W. Berry (1875–1945), paleoecology and phytogeography
- William Gilbert Chaloner (1928-)
- Isabel Cookson (1893-1973), early vascular plants, palynology
- Dianne Edwards (1942-), colonisation of land by early terrestrial floras
- Thomas Maxwell Harris (1903–1983), Mesozoic plants of Jameson Land (Greenland) and Yorkshire.
- Robert Kidston (1852-1924), early land plants, Devonian and Carboniferous floras, and their use in stratigraphy
- Birbal Sahni (1891–1949), Revision of Indian Gondwana Plants
- Dunkinfield Henry Scott (1854–1934), analysis of the structures of fossil plants
- Constantin von Ettingshausen (1826–1897), Tertiary floras
- Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761–1838), the "father of paleobotany"
- Franz Unger (1800–1870), pioneer in plant physiology, phytotomy and soil science
- Jack A. Wolfe (1936–2005), Tertiary paleoclimate of western North America
- Gilbert Arthur Leisman (1924–1996), known for work on Carboniferous lycophytes of central North America.
See also
