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Pteridophyte success and past biota—a palaeobotanist's approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

B. A. Thomas
B. A. Thomas
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, University of London, Goldsmiths' College, Rachel McMillan Building, London SE8 3BU, U.K.
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Synopsis

The success of plants which lived in the past should be assessed differently from that of living plants as time is an additional important factor. Success may therefore be judged in one period of time or throughout the whole geological history of the plants.

Limitations of the fossil record through plant fragmentation, lack of preservation and incomplete preservation severely restrict the amount of information available. However, accepting these problems, there are four major ways in which plants may be judged: long term survival, repeated specialisation, dominance and adaptability. Examples are given of pteridophytes that exhibit success in these four ways.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 86: The Biology of Pteridophytes , 1985 , pp. 423 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1985

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