What do we now know about the origins of plants on land, from an evolutionary and an environmental perspective? The essays in this collection present a synthesis of our present state of knowledge, integrating current information in paleobotany with physical, chemical, and geological data.
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Embryophytes on Land: The Ordovician to Lochkovian (Lower Devonian) Record
- 3. Rustling in the Undergrowth: Animals in Early Terrestrial Ecosystems
- 4. New Data on Nothia aphylla Lyon 1964 ex El-Saadawy et Lacey 1979, a Poorly Known Plant from the Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert
- 5. Morphology of Above- and Below-Ground Structures in Early Devonian (Pragian–Emsian) Plants
- 6. The Posongchong Floral Assemblages of Southeastern Yunnan, China—Diversity and Disparity in Early Devonian Plant Assemblages
- 7. The Middle Devonian Flora Revisited
- 8. The Origin, Morphology, and Ecophysiology of Early Embryophytes: Neontological and Paleontological Perspectives
- 9. Biological Roles for Phenolic Compounds in the Evolution of Early Land Plants
- 10. The Effect of the Rise of Land Plants on Atmospheric CO2 During the Paleozoic
- 11. Early Terrestrial Plant Environments: An Example from the Emsian of Gaspé, Canada
- 12. Effects of the Middle to Late Devonian Spreadof Vascular Land Plants on Weathering Regimes,Marine Biotas, and Global Climate
- 13. Diversification of Siluro-Devonian Plant Traces in Paleosols and Influence on Estimates of Paleoatmospheric CO2 Levels
- References
- Index