Prehistoric Plants

What kinds of plants might a hungry dinosaur have eaten? When did flowers first
appear on Earth? How did plants contribute to the formation of Earth's current
atmosphere? All these questions, and many more, can be answered by the scientific
field of paleobotany.
What exactly IS paleobotany? Well, botany is the study of plants, while the
prefix paleo comes from the Greek word paleon which means old, so paleobotany is the
study of the plants that lived long ago. It is one half of a larger branch of science
called paleontology which studies the history of life on Earth more generally.
Paleobotany specifically focuses on the study of plant life, while paleozoology focuses
on animal life.
We can learn a lot about the environment during prehistoric times by studying the types
of plants that grew then. Fossilized plant life tells a story of how the Earth has changed
over time. Studying plants can even tell us important information about the animals that
lived long ago. Many animals, both today and in the past, eat a variety of plants, so
learning about plants also gives new insights into the animals that ate them.
Paleobotany has a long history in the world of science. Plant fossils are usually easily
recognizable, and people throughout the world have been finding and collecting them
for hundreds of years.
By the early 1700s, several books had already been published that included illustrations
of plant fossils. One of these, the Herbarium Diluvianum, included very detailed images
and descriptions of fossilized plants collected from England, Germany, and Switzerland.
At the time of its publication, this book represented the most comprehensive study of
ancient plant life that had ever existed.
Paleobotany today is a highly integrated interdisciplinary endeavor. A paleobotanist
50 years ago needed only geology and plant biology to study fossil plants. However, we
now realize that research areas such as geochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology,
biomechanics, phylogeny, etc. are transforming our approaches to, and perception of,
the analysis of fossil plants and ecosystems, and some of these once-so-remote
research areas are becoming increasingly important for, and integral parts of,
paleobotanical research. The present volume exemplifies the potential of utilizing
interdisciplinary research in the advancement of paleobiological inquiry. As such, the
volume represents a blueprint for paleobotany of the 21st century.