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Fossil Angiosperm Leaves: Paleobotany's Difficult Children Prove Themselves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2017

Peter Wilf
Peter Wilf*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences Pennsylvania State University 537 Deike Building University Park, PA 16802
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Abstract

The great bulk of the angiosperm fossil record consists of isolated fossil leaves that preserve abundant shape and venation (leaf architectural) information but are difficult to identify because they are not attached to other plant organs. Thus, poor taxonomic knowledge has tempered the tremendous potential of fossil leaves for constructing finely resolved records of biodiversity through time, extinction and recovery, past climate change and biotic response, paleoecology, and plant-animal associations. Moreover, paleoecological and paleoclimatic interpretations of fossil leaves are in great need of new approaches. Recent work is rapidly increasing the scientific value of fossil angiosperm leaves through advances in traditional paleobotanical reconstruction, phylogenetic understanding of both leaf architecture and the response of leaf shape to climate, quantitative plant ecology using measurable, correlatable leaf traits, and improved understanding of insect leaf-feeding damage. These emerging areas offer many novel opportunities to link paleoecology and neoecology. Increased collaboration across traditionally separate research areas is critical to continued success.

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Research Article
Information
The Paleontological Society Papers , Volume 14: From Evolution to Geobiology: Research Questions Driving Paleontology at the Start of a New Century , October 2008 , pp. 319 - 333
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Copyright © by the Paleontological Society 

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