Introduction to Paleobotany, How Fossil Plants are Formed

Taylor, Thomas N.; Taylor, Edith L.; Krings, Michael

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-373972-8.00001-2

Cited by 189 publications

(353 citation statements)

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“…They-and their modern bryophyte descendantslack complex transport systems, i.e., water-conducting xylem and sugar-conducting phloem. In a manner analogous to what happened in animal evolution, the evolution of these complex transport systems in vascular plants accompanied a dramatic change in organismal form (36,38). Then several lineages of early vascular plants independently evolved bilateral leaves specialized for photosynthesis and evapotranspiration, as well as cylindrical roots specialized for water and ion absorption (36,38).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Developmental perspectives (36)(37)(38) provide the fundamental insight that the patterns of organismal symmetry are established during the earliest developmental stages for most multicellular organisms, including plants and animals. Subsequently, these organisms often grow into complex forms through independently evolved mechanisms including modularity, fractal structure, and segmentation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basic form of these ancient plants is replicated by the fractal stem and root systems of modern plants. Interestingly, this fractal form has permitted many vascular plant lineages to achieve great heights, as evidenced by repeated evolution of treelike plants ranging from the arborescent lycopods and horsetails in Carboniferous forests 360-300 million years ago to the coniferous and angiosperm trees of today (38). Furthermore, the evolution of space-filling leaves has allowed vascular plant trees to effectively improve their energetic efficiency.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Form, function, and evolution of living organisms

Banavar¹,

Cooke

Rinaldo

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Despite the vast diversity of sizes and shapes of living organisms, life's organization across scales exhibits remarkable commonalities, most notably through the approximate validity of Kleiber's law, the power law scaling of metabolic rates with the mass of an organism. Here, we present a derivation of Kleiber's law that is independent of the specificity of the myriads of organism species. Specifically, we account for the distinct geometries of trees and mammals as well as deviations from the pure power law behavior of Kleiber's law, and predict the possibility of life forms with geometries intermediate between trees and mammals. We also make several predictions in excellent accord with empirical data. Our theory relates the separate evolutionary histories of plants and animals through the fundamental physics underlying their distinct overall forms and physiologies.allometric scaling | biological scaling | tree geometry | fractal U nderstanding the origin and evolution of the geometries of living forms is a formidable challenge (1, 2). The geometry of an object can be characterized by its surface−volume relationship-the surface area S of an object of volume V can scale at most as S ∼ V and at least as S ∼ V 2=3 (3). These geometries have been used by nature in space-filling trees and animals, respectively. Here, our principal goal is to explore how it is that both geometries of life coexist on Earth, whether intermediate geometries are possible, and what all this implies for evolution of life on Earth.Living organisms span an impressive range of body mass, shapes, and scales. They are inherently complex, they have been shaped by history through evolution and natural section, and they continually extract, transform, and use energy from their environment. The most prevalent large multicellular organisms on Earth, namely plants and animals, exhibit distinct shapes, as determined by the distribution of mass over the volume. Animals are able to move and are approximately homogeneous in their mass distribution-yet they have beautiful fractal transportation networks. Plants are rooted organisms with a heterogeneous selfsimilar (fractal) geometry-the mass of the tree is more concentrated in the stem and branches than in the leaves.The approximate power law dependence of the metabolic rate, the rate at which an organism burns energy, on organism mass has been carefully studied for nearly two centuries and is known as allometric scaling (4-32). From the power law behavior, with an exponent around 3/4, one can deduce the scaling of characteristic quantities with mass and, through dimensional analysis, obtain wide-ranging predictions often in accord with empirical data. However, what underlies this ubiquitous quarter-power scaling, and with a dominant exponent of 3/4?In an influential series of papers, West and coworkers (11, 12, 14-16) suggested that fractality was at the heart of allometric scaling. Inspired by these papers, a contrasting view was presented (13), which argued that, although fractal circulatory networks m...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Form, function, and evolution of living organisms

Banavar¹,

Cooke

Rinaldo

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The ectomycorrhizal fungi of the Pinaceae (35) and the endomycorrhizae of cordaite roots (36) suggest that mycorrhizal associations were important in the evolution of early conifer groups. The cordaites are a group of extinct fossil plants thought to be involved in the evolution of the conifers (34). Nearly all of the extant nodulating conifers, as well as the mycorrhizal nodule-forming angiosperm Gymnostoma (4), occur in tropical to subtropical ecosystems in exposed mafic, rocky habitats containing little phosphorus, which are occasionally inundated with water (e.g., 22).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological and functional stasis in mycorrhizal root nodules as exhibited by a Triassic conifer

Schwendemann

Decombeix

Taylor

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Mycorrhizal root nodules occur in the conifer families Araucariaceae, Podocarpaceae, and Sciadopityaceae. Although the fossil record of these families can be traced back into the early Mesozoic, the oldest fossil evidence of root nodules previously came from the Cretaceous. Here we report on cellularly preserved root nodules of the early conifer Notophytum from Middle Triassic permineralized peat of Antarctica. These fossil root nodules contain fungal arbuscules, hyphal coils, and vesicles in their cortex. Numerous glomoid-type spores are found in the peat matrix surrounding the nodules. This discovery indicates that mutualistic associations between conifer root nodules and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi date back to at least the early Mesozoic, the period during which most of the modern conifer families first appeared. Notophytum root nodules predate the next known appearance of this association by 100 million years, indicating that this specialized form of mycorrhizal symbiosis has ancient origins.

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“…The leptosporangiate ferns (filicalean) are known from the Mississippian (Taylor et al 2009) and they are widespread on nearly all Carboniferous localities through the world. According to Rothwell (1987) the abundant of filicalean increased in Pennsylvanian age.…”

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confidence: 99%

Revision of Dendraena pinnatilobata Němejc from the Pennsylvanian of the Czech Republic

Frojdová¹,

Pšenička²,

Bek³

et al. 2017

Bull. Geosci.

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pinnatilobata Němejc is a Pennsylvanian true fern, which is known from the Stradonice locality (Czech Republic) only. All specimens of Dendraena pinnatilobata are preserved as three-dimensionally in volcaniclastic of Whestone Horizon (Radnice Member, Kladno Formation). Revision of this species includes detail study of pinnae and pinnules morphology, sporangia, in situ spores and a rachial anatomy. Combination of several methods was used including camera lucida, maceration of sporangial/spores, SEM observation and cross sections of rachides for precise description of this species. D. pinnatilobata pinnae were borne on the rachides of the Anachoropteris robusta-type anatomy. This real organic connection between pinnae/pinnules (including reproductive organs) and rachial anatomy is rare in fossil record. This knowledge is very important for understanding of a leptosporangiate fern evolution. Sporangia of Dendraena pinnatilobata are annulate with band-lateral-upper type of annulus and in situ spores of the Microreticulatisporites harrisonii type, described for the first time, are unique for D. pinnatilobata. Based on this type of sporangia the species belongs to the leptosporangiate ferns. According to the petrological and sedimentological study of host sediments it is possible to infer that specimens of Dendraena were transported a short distance. Transport was very fast and fossils were deposited in supercritical conditions, which resulted in rapid burial of the plants and their excellent preservation. The plant host rock -Whetstone Horizon -also contains abundant volcaniclastic components. D. pinnatilobata grew in close proximity to the riverside or the peatland margins.•

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Introduction to Paleobotany, How Fossil Plants are Formed

Cited by 189 publications

References 0 publications

Form, function, and evolution of living organisms

Form, function, and evolution of living organisms

Morphological and functional stasis in mycorrhizal root nodules as exhibited by a Triassic conifer

Revision of Dendraena pinnatilobata Němejc from the Pennsylvanian of the Czech Republic

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