Transformative Paleobotany

Michael Krings is curator for fossil plants at the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology (SNSB-BSPG) in Munich, Germany, and professor of plant paleobiology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. He also holds an affiliate faculty position in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. He received his PhD in botany from the University of Münster, Germany, and was an Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kansas. His research interests include Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic seed plants and the biology and ecology of microorganisms in late Paleozoic terrestrial ecosystems. Carla J. Harper is an Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation postdoctoral research fellow at the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology (SNSB-BSPG) and Ludwig- Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany. She also holds a research associate position at the Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas. She received her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Kansas. Her research interests include the biology and ecology of microorganisms and biotas in Permian–Jurassic ecosystems of Antarctica and late Paleozoic of Europe, symbiotic systems through time, as well as the biology, geochemistry, and evolution of fossil microbes. N. Ruben Cuneo is a Prinicipal Researcher at the National Research Council of Argentina, and Director of the Museo Paleontológico E. Feruglio in Trelew. He received his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Buenos Aires. His research interests include fossil floras from Patagonia and Antarctica ranging from the Permian through the Eocene in aspects relatedwith their systematics, paleoecology, bio-chronostratigraphy and paleoclimatology. Gar Rothwell is the Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Plant Biology, Emeritus, Ohio University, and Courtesy Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University. He is past-president of the International Organisation of Palaeobotany, author of the paleobotany textbook, Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants (Stewart and Rothwell, 1993), and editor of six previous volumes of studies in plant paleontology. His research focuses on the role of development in evolution, and on the patterns of organismal evolution and phylogeny among land plants, particularly lycophytes, equisetophytes, ferns, and seed plants.

EARLY LAND PLANTS: INNOVATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS 1. The evolutionary origin of the plant spore in relation to the antithetic origin of the plant sporophyte 2. Early Devonian woody plants and implications for the early evolution of vascular cambia 3. Using architecture modeling of the Devonian tree Pseudosporochnus to compute its biomass 4. The advantages and frustrations of a plant Lagerstätte as illustrated by a new taxon from the Lower Devonian of the Welsh Borderland, UK 5. Early Tracheophyte Phylogeny: A Preliminary Assessment of Homologies

LATE PALEOZOIC AND MESOZOIC PLANTS AND FLORAS 6. Lower Permian flora of the Sanzenbacher Ranch, Clay County, Texas 7. Permian ginkgophytes of Angaraland 8. Glossopterid plant remains in permineralization: What do they tell us? 9. Pachytestopsis tayloriorum gen. et sp. nov., an anatomically preserved glossopterid seed from the Lopingian of Queensland, Australia 10. A Triassic Mystery Solved: Fertile Pekinopteris from the Triassic of North Carolina, U.S.A. 11. Enigmatic, structurally preserved stems from the Triassic of central Europe: A fern or not a fern?

PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHY, BIOLOGY, AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF PLANTS 12. A comprehensive assessment of the fossil record of liverworts in amber 13. Aerodynamics of Fossil Pollen: Implications for Understanding Pollination Biology in Extinct Plants 14. Escapia gen. nov.: Morphological evolution, paleogeographic diversification, and the environmental distribution of marattialean ferns through time 15. Heterosporous ferns from Patagonia: The case of Azolla 16. Why are bryophytes so rare in the fossil record?  A spotlight on taphonomy and fossil preservation 17. Fossil seeds with affinities to Austrobaileyales and Nymphaeales from the Early Cretaceous (early to middle Albian) of Virginia and Maryland, U.S.A: new evidence for extensive extinction near the base of the angiosperm tree

FOSSIL MICROORGANISMS 18. Reactive Oxygen Defense Against Cellular Endoparasites and the Origin of Eukaryotes 19. Fossils of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi give insights into the history of a successful partnership with plants 20. Looking for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the fossil record – an illustrated guide 21. Exceptional preservation of sessile, long-stalked microorganisms in the Lower Devonian Windyfield chert (Scotland) 22. Morphological convergence in forest microfungi provides a proxy for Paleogene forest structure 23. Ediacarans, protolichens, and lichen-derived Penicillium: A critical reassessment of the evolution of lichenization in fungi

ANTARCTIC PALEOBOTANY 24. Polar Regions of the Mesozoic–Paleogene greenhouse world as refugia for relict plant groups 25. Leaf venation density and calculated physiological characteristics of fossil leaves from the Permian of Gondwana 26. Functional significance of cambial development in Vertebraria roots: How do unusual xylem traits serve life at a high latitude? 27. Cretaceous to Paleogene vegetation transition in Antarctica