Principles of Paleobotany

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. The origin of plants. 3. How plants conquered the land? 4. The origin of seed plants. 5. Early land plants. 6. Early experiments in plant hybridization. 7. Sequence variation in plant systematics. 8. Plant structure. 9. Plant fossils and their preservation. 10. Paleontology. 11. Angiosperms. 12. Lycophytes. 13. Phylogenetics. 14. Medullosans and cycads. 25. GINKGO, Cordaites and the conifers. 16. Sphenopsids and ferns. 17. Anthophytes, glassopterids and others.

Botany is the science of plants. Science might be defined as an intellectual analysis of a given subject. It is the attempt to conclude from single observations to a general validity, to extrapolate from known and to have a look at different arguments.

Plant kingdom is the base of earth’s food chain and as such is the foundation for all life as we know it today, in the recent past, and in the deep past.

New ideas and theories pertaining to such topics as the origin and evolution of eucaryotes, the early evolution of ferns, the origin of seeds, and the origin and early evolution of gymnosperms and angiosperms. Integrated system of course provides the useful floral characters found in taxonomic works and large number of families are illustrated.

The book is designed so that selected parts can be used for graduate and post-graduate courses. This book was not written primarily for paleobotanists but nevertheless makes a useful reference book for those who are interested in the evolution or relationships of flowering plant fossils.