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| Preface | |
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| Introduction | |
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| What is a plant? | |
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| How do plant fragments get into the fossil record? | |
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| Types of plant fossil | |
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| Where are plant fossils found? | |
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| Bias in the fossil record | |
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| Why do we study plant fossils? | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Highlights of palaeobotanical study | |
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| The beginnings of palaeobotany | |
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| The importance of coal | |
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| Anatomical studies | |
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| Coal balls | |
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| Coal petrology and palynology | |
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| The Glossopteris flora and continental drift | |
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| Early land plants | |
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| The age of cycads | |
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| Flowering plants | |
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| The future for palaeobotany | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Studying plant fossils | |
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| Morphology of adpressions | |
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| Macrophotography | |
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| Transfers | |
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| Cuticles and epidermal structures | |
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| Extracting in situ pollen and spores | |
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| Dispersed pollen and spores | |
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| Three-dimensionally preserved plant fossils | |
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| Prepared casts | |
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| Sectioning anatomically preserved fossils | |
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| Reconstructing whole fossil plants | |
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| Naming plant fossils | |
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| Phylogenetic analysis | |
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| BiostraLigraphy and palaeobiogeography | |
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| Curation | |
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| Site conservation | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Early land plants | |
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| Alternating generations | |
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| Adapting to life on land | |
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| Cryptospores and the earliest land plants | |
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| The first vascular plants | |
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| The Rhynie Chert flora | |
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| Zosterophyils | |
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| Trimerophytes | |
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| Progymnosperms | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Lycophytes | |
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| The earliest herbaceous lycophytes | |
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| The beginnings of modern herbaceous lycophytes | |
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| Increase in size and arborescence | |
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| Cuticles and paper coal | |
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| Rooting structures | |
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| Reproduction | |
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| After the giants | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Sphenophytes | |
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| Origin and systematic position of the sphenophytes | |
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| Pseudoborniales | |
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| Sphenophyllales | |
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| Archaeocalamitaceae | |
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| Calamostachyaceae | |
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| Gondwana sphenophytes | |
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| Modern sphenophytes | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Ferns | |
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| The first ferns | |
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| Modern ferns | |
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| Marattiales | |
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| Other Late Palaeozoic ferns | |
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| Ophioglossales | |
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| Filicalean ferns | |
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| Osmundaceae | |
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| Schizaeaceae | |
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| Gleicheniaceae | |
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| Matoniaceae | |
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| Dipteridaceae | |
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| Dicksoniaceae and Cyathaceae | |
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| Polypodiaceous ferns | |
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| Tempskya | |
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| Heterosporous ferns | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Early gymnosperms | |
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| What are ovules and seeds? | |
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| Gymnosperm reproducrion | |
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| What plants did gymnosperms evolve from? | |
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| The pteridosperms | |
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| Lyginopteridales | |
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| Medullosales | |
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| Callistophytales | |
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| Peltasperms | |
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| Glossopterids | |
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| Cordaites | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Modern gymnosperms | |
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| Early conifers | |
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| Modern conifers | |
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| Ginkgoales | |
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| Cycads | |
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| Bennettitales | |
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| Caytoniales | |
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| Other gymnosperm groups | |
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| Gnetales | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| Angiosperms | |
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| What makes an angiosperm? | |
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| Wood | |
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| Ancestors of the angiosperms | |
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| The earliest angiosperms | |
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| Cretaceous angiosperms | |
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| Wind pollinated angiosperms | |
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| The rise of the monocotyledons | |
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| Cenozoic angiosperms | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| The history of land vegetation | |
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| Silurian Period (416-443 Ma) | |
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| Devonian Period (359-416 Ma) | |
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| Carboniferous Period (299-359 Ma) | |
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| Permian Period (251-299 Ma) | |
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| Permian/Trias sic (P/T) Extinction Event | |
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| Triassic Period (200-251 Ma) | |
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| Jurassic Period (146-200 Ma) | |
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| Cretaceous Period (66-146 Ma) | |
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| Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) Extinction Event | |
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| Palaeogene and Neogene Periods (1.8-67 Ma) | |
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| Quaternary Period (1.8 Ma to present) | |
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| Recommended reading | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |