Questions tagged [paleobotany]

Paleobotany is the branch of paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleobiogeography), and both the evolutionary history of plants, with a bearing upon the evolution of life in general.

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Are These Leaf Fossils Found Near a Texas Lake Shore?

I recently came across some intriguing specimens near a lake shore in Texas and am seeking your expertise to help identify them. The objects have a few characteristics that lead me to believe they ...
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Is this a fossil or something anorganic?

So, i found a weird structure in a piece of jurassic limestone. It is cylindrical and roughly one cm in diameter, enters the stone on one side and leaves on the other. Under the microscope, you can ...
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Where did all the CO₂ come from that was deposited as coal during the Carboniferous?

During the Carboniferous, vast deposits of coal (or peat at that time) were created because – as far as I understand – decomposition of wood (white rot?) was not yet "invented" at that time. This ...
emacs drives me nuts's user avatar
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Did low $\small\sf{CO_2}$ levels affected Permo-Triassic mass extinction?

After answering this question: How did plants adapt to $\small\sf{CO_2}$ levels past 400k years? Why won't they do it again? I know Permo-Triassic mass extinction is associated to a catastrophic ...
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What makes pollen varieties useful index fossils?

What makes pollen varieties useful index fossils? Should pollen not be a poor index fossil?
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Why is coal classified as a sedimentary rock?

Something just clicked in my head today. Rocks, by the definition I was taught, are composed of minerals which in turn are by definition not organic, so they are or were not alive. However. Coal, ...
Lucian09474's user avatar
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How can I tell if a rock is really petrified wood?

I found a rock in the Mojave desert and it resembles a tree branch including what appears to be wood grain. Is there some test or observation that can be done at home to conclusively answer my ...
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What evidence is there that plant evolutionary history "dances to a different beat" than that of animals?

Floral transformations have been due to gradual replacement and piecemeal, not mass extinction. Plant “geoevents”; have not been synchronous with epochal animal originations/ extinctions and hence ...
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