Paleobotany
Similar to paleobotany, we can tell a great deal of information about the environment and biome at the time these particles existed prehistorically.
[9] Besides uncovering documentation of our past environmental conditions, palynology can also tell us about animal diets, historical standings of human allergies, and reveal evidence in crime cases.
[citation needed] Macroscopic remains of true vascular plants are first found in the fossil record during the Silurian Period of the Paleozoic era.
The Rhynie chert is an Early Devonian sinter (hot spring) deposit composed primarily of silica.
It is exceptional due to its preservation of several different clades of plants, from mosses and lycophytes to more unusual, problematic forms.
Many fossil animals, including arthropods and arachnids, are also found in the Rhynie chert, and it offers a unique window into the history of early terrestrial life.
The earliest tree was once thought to be Archaeopteris, which bears simple, fern-like leaves spirally arranged on branches atop a conifer-like trunk,[11] although it is now known to be the recently discovered Wattieza.
[14] For many years this approach to naming plant fossils was accepted by paleobotanists but not formalised within the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature.
[15] Eventually, Thomas (1935) and Jongmans, Halle & Gothan (1935) proposed a set of formal provisions, the essence of which was introduced into the 1952 International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
[16] These early provisions allowed fossils representing particular parts of plants in a particular state of preservation to be placed in organ-genera.
In addition, a small subset of organ-genera, to be known as form-genera, were recognised based on the artificial taxa introduced by Brongniart mainly for foliage fossils.
Such a change in circumscription could result in an expansion of the range of plant parts or preservation states that could be incorporated within the taxon.
It appeared that morphotaxa offered no real advantage to paleobotanists over normal fossil-taxa and the concept was abandoned with the 2011 botanical congress and the 2012 International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.
