The Vegetation of Antarctica through Geological Time

David J. Cantrill is Chief Botanist and Director of the National Herbarium of Victoria at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Australia. Throughout his academic life he has undertaken extensive work across the southern hemisphere, particularly Antarctica, researching fossil floras from the Permian to early Cenozoic. His research into Antarctic biotas has concentrated on the systematic composition of floras, paleoecology, the role of Antarctica in mediating climate and biogeographic patterns during Gondwana break up and developing present day patterns of austral plant distribution. Imogen Poole is a Senior Research Fellow at Utrecht University and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen. She has worked extensively on paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic interpretations of Cretaceous and younger floras from both hemispheres. A particular focus of her research has been determining the floristic composition of high latitude Antarctic floras and reconstructing the paleoenvironment and climate of these early angiospermous ecosystems. She has also been actively involved in conservational issues relating to tourism and human impacts in Antarctica and has authored articles for the popular press.

1. Introduction; 2. Colonization of the land; 3. Deglaciation and colonization of the South Pole; 4. Mass extinction and life in the Triassic; 5. Continental break up and its impact on Jurassic vegetation; 6. Fern-conifer dominated lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) ecosystems and the angiosperm invasion; 7. The origin of southern temperate ecosystems; 8. The heat is on: Paleogene floras and the Paleocene-Eocene warm period; 9. After the heat: late Eocene to Pliocene climatic cooling and modification of the Antarctic vegetation; Index.