Sprecher
Beschreibung
The plant fossil record is, by its very nature, fragmentary, but some pieces of this puzzle preserve morphological and/or anatomical characters that provide direct insights into the ecology and physiology of extinct taxa. This "functional approach" allows paleobotanists to study plant evolution in a way that complements systematics, seeing fossil plants as once-living organisms that interacted with their environment. For example, a fossil trunk with a thick bark or evidence of new shoots produced from dormant buds suggest an ability to withstand stressful conditions. Interactions with other organisms can also be documented from isolated plant fossils, sometimes in great detail. This approach is also relevant for reconstructing functional traits at the level of a single organ or tissue. The distribution of tissues within a stem can be translated into mechanical properties. Fossil wood anatomy enables us to estimate its hydraulic properties and even to detect fine physiological processes such as tylosis formation. While such functional traits directly impact plant growth and survival, their documentation in the fossil record remains patchy due, in part, to our dependence on exceptional preservation. I will present advances made over the last 20 years in our understanding of the biology of two emblematic Paleozoic trees: (1) Archaeopteris, one of the earliest arborescent taxa and a major component of Late Devonian floras, and (2) Glossopteris, which dominated most Permian floras of Gondwana. I will also discuss how we can move forward our investigations of fossil plant biology and encourage its integration into future (paleo)botanical research.