Evolution of the Arborescent Gymnosperms: Volume 2, Southern Hemisphere Focus: Pattern, Process and Diversity

Author Biography

Christopher N. Page (1942–2022) held a first class bachelor's degree in geology and a PhD in cytogenetics. Following positions at the University of Queensland and University of Oxford, he joined the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh as a specialist tree scientist. This provided him with a base for half a century of global study of conifers and ferns, including more than 10 cumulative years spent in the field on every continent except Antarctica. After leaving Edinburgh, he joined the University of Exeter in his retirement, where he continued to study ancient plant groups by integrating multi-sourced plant data with phylogenetic arrays. The author of 8 books and 150 journal papers, Dr Page was best known for bridging fields as diverse as geology, palaeobotany, evolutionary biology, biodiversity, genetics and modern molecular studies in order to develop environmental–evolutionary interpretations and applications. He was awarded two scientific Gold Medals – fittingly one for plant biology from the Indian Pteridological Society and one for geology from the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. This treatise on gymnosperms, the manuscript for which was completed shortly before his death, is the culmination of 54 years of research, teaching and field study.