European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference 2026

The medullosans depict widespread and diverse floral elements of late Paleozoic tropical landscapes on the Northern Hemisphere. In the phylogeny of the seed-plant clade the group holds a poorly constrained position, as its numerous ancient features complicate comparisons with modern relatives. Among these features, the medullosan stele is of key significance as it exhibits a complex and...

Fossil plants from the interval of the uppermost Permian and lowerest Triassic succession of western China provide a means by which to assess the impact of the end-Permian mass extinction in the mid-latitudes of NE Pangaea. Here we describe a petrified forest from the uppermost part of the Wutonggou Formation in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, northwest China. The age of the fossil interval is the...

Cordaitales represent an extinct group of cosmopolitan gymnosperms with a chronostratigraphic range from the Mississippian to the Permian. These plants are commonly interpreted as having monopodial trunks that reached considerable heights before developing a crown of branches bearing sessile, elongated leaves often arranged in a spiral pattern. The group includes arborescent forms, known from...

The Late Pliocene (Brunssumian – Reuverian) lignite-bearing deposits of the Wölfersheim Formation in the Wetterau region (Hesse, Germany), have long been known for their abundant and diverse macrofloral (i.e., carpological remains) and palynofloral assemblages. Although the (in some layers massive) occurrence of charcoal has been repeatedly reported from these deposits since the middle of the...

Several islands in the Aegean Sea are known for their fossil forests. Renown are the so-called petrified forests of Miocene age on the island of Lesvos, Greece, consisting of a stunning number of upright tree trunks, fallen logs, pieces of wood, and leaves on the western part of the island. The fossil trees were buried in situ in tephra by multiple eruptions in the early Miocene. Studies on...

When reconstructing ancient vegetation of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic, an important step in doing so is determining the relationships of fossil woods to present-day taxa. Eocene angiosperm woods may have a combination of features of 1) a present-day genus; 2) a present-day family; 3) multiple families in an order; 4) no present-day taxon as based on current knowledge. We discuss examples...

Rivecourt and Le Quesnoy (Oise, France) are two fossil sites located in the northeastern part of the Paris Basin that have yielded very rich floras and faunas. Rivecourt is dated to the uppermost Thanetian and Le Quesnoy to the lowermost Ypresian, making these sites particularly suitable for investigating vegetation changes across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in Europe. In addition,...

The fossil record of Central America is critical for understanding the origin and evolution of Neotropical forests. The Azuero Peninsula of Panama preserves an exceptional paleobotanical record, including abundant fossil woods, permineralized seeds, fruits, and leaf compressions. While most studied localities correspond to Oligocene–Miocene deposits of the Santiago Formation, Eocene...

This study describes a new fossil wood species, Pahudioxylon pakistanicum Izhar, Su and Oskolski, n. sp. from the Middle to the Upper Miocene Kamlial Formation in the Salt Range, eastern Pakistan. This is the first fossil record of the subfamily Detarioideae (Fabaceae) in Pakistan. The new species is characterized by a combination of simple perforation plates, small to medium alternate...