Preface; Preface to First Edition; 1. Introduction; 2. Plant fossils: preservation, preparation and age determination; 3. The fossil record: systematics, reconstruction and nomenclature; 4. Life in the Precambian; 5. Diversification of the Fungi; 6. Diversification among the algae and related plants; 7. How the land turned green: speculation; 8. How the land turned green: Bryophyta; 9. How the land turned green: vascular plants, primitive types; 10. The evolution of microphylls and adaxial sporangia; 11. The isoetalean clade; 12. Paleoecology of the Pennsylvanian coal swamps; 13. More diversity in the Devonian: Trimerophytopsida; 14. The origin of the Sphenopsida; 15. Unique and extinct: the Upper Paleozoic sphenophylls; 16. The origin of the horsetails; 17. Putative ferns of the Paleozoic; 18. The emergence of the Marattiales and Ophioglossales; 19. Filicales of the Carboniferous; 20. The emergence of the modern Filicales, Salviniales and Marsileales; 21. Free-sporing plants with gymnospermous secondary wood; 22. Gymnosperm reproduction: early evolution; 23. Paleozoic gymnosperms with fernlike leaves; 24. Cycads: origins and relationships; 25. The enigmatic cycadeoids; 26. More innovation and diversification among gymnosperms; 27. The record of a living fossil: Ginkgo; 28. The first coniferophytes; 29. The diversification of conifers and taxads; 30. The origin and early evolution of angiosperms; 31. Angiosperms: diversification, radiation, and modernisation; 32. Major evolutionary events and trends: in retrospect; Index.
This 1993 textbook describes and explains the origin and evolution of plants as revealed by the fossil record.
'This textbook is well written and well researched. In all, it is a pleasure to own.' Nature 'I recommend it as an excellent text and as a valuable reference work for those in related fields.' American Scientist 'I have seldom read a textbook with such enthusiasm and I shall recommend it to students and staff alike.' The Scientist
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