Fossil Plants

Fossil Plants is the first book of its kind to provide an overview of the development of plant life through time focusing on key events and periods. Beginning with the origins of plant life in the sea, the book traces the evolution of land plants, ferns, conifers and their relatives, and flowering plants. It is interwoven with ‘snapshots’ of landscapes and environments at various periods of geological time, focusing on plants but touching also on plant-animal interactions. Emphasis is placed on the use of fossil plants in reconstructing climate, vegetation, and other aspects of earth history. It is amply illustrated with both fossil plants, reconstructions of extinct species and the ‘living relatives’ of fossil plants which hold the key to discovering the environments of the past.