Theoretical Course

BOTCOR T205
Group A (PALAEOBOTANY)
TEE points: 30 Classes/ Semester: 30

1. Preservation of Plants as Fossils: Definition; Taphonomy; environment for fossilization; modes of preservation; types;
major rock types, rock cycle and rocks containing fossils; systematics, reconstruction and nomenclature. (4)

2. Geologic Time: Geologic timescale, relative vs. numerical age, physical and biological principles for defining relative and
numerical age. (4)

3. Early Life: The origin of earth, earliest environment, theories on origin of life, evidences for the origin of life -
prokaryotes, evolution of eukaryotes and fossil records, diversified life - algae and fungi. (4)

4. Colonization of Land by Plants: Geologic time, environment, vegetative and reproductive adaptations to land dwelling,
fossil evidences - transitional plants with land adaptive features, early non vascular land plants (bryophytes), early vascular
land plants (pteridophytes). (4)

5. Early Vascular Plants to Early Spore Producing Trees (Arborescent Pteridophytes & Progymnosperms): Geologic time,
environment, advancement in plant adaptive features for land dwelling with fossil evidences. (4)

6. Early Spore Producing Trees to Early Seed Producing Trees (Gymnosperms): From isospores to free sporing
heterospores, origin of ovule, hydrasperman reproduction with fossil evidences. (4)

7. Origin and Evolution of Flowering Plants (Angiosperms): Geologic time, evolutionary trends - angiosperm derived
characteristics, fossil evidences for early flowering plants, place of origin, radiation, phylogeny. (3)

8. Aspects and Appraisal of Palaeobotany: Palaeobotanical study in exploring - mysteries in the living planet; origin,
evolution, diversification and extinction of species; plant-animal interaction and co-evolution; plate movement, geological
age and correlation of strata; palaeogeogrpahy, palaeoclimate; fossil fuel. (3)
 UNIT 1: Preservation of Plants as Fossils
Definition; Taphonomy; environment for fossilization; modes of preservation;
types; major rock types, rock cycle and rocks containing fossils; systematics,
reconstruction and nomenclature

Sudha Gupta, Associate Professor

Department of Botany, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235, West Bengal, INDIA
E-mail: sg.botany@klyuniv@ac.in; sudhaguptain@gmail.com
 What is Fossils?
derived from the Latin verb ‘fodere’ which means “to dig”
Originally it referred to anything one might remove from the Earth; Later on, the word FOSSIL restricts
the remains of whole or part of an organism or the evidence of former existence of an organism preserved
in the consolidated sediments of the Earth
Any direct or indirect evidences of life (actual or imprint of body of organism as a whole or
part) and life time activities (tract, trail, boring, teeth mark, coprolite etc.) of the geological
past and recent past (Holocene) are considered as fossils

Palaeontology

Palaeobotany Palaeozoology
The branch of science concerned The branch of science dealing
with the study of plant fossils with the study of animal fossils
 How are the fossils formed?
Through an elaborate process TAPHONOMY: the study of the transition of
organic remains from the biosphere to the lithosphere

ENTRAPMENT WITHIN LITHIFICATION -

DEATH DECAY SEDIMENTS EXPOSURE

settles to the
freshwater or
marine environments
 TAPHONOMY
Birth of an organism

Necrology Death / Abscission / Decay

Biostratinomy Burial of organisms in the sediments

(Autochthonous) i) organisms preserved at the place of its origin
(Allochthonous) ii) organisms are transported and deposited somewhere else

Diagenesis Microbial diagenesis, other

physicochemical changes

Lithification Post burial changes, mineralization

FOSSILS
(biological remains hardened into fossils; compacted sediments
are gradually changed into sedimentary rock)
 Conditions for fossilization
External (environmental) factors
Enclosed or protected water (small lake, swamp etc): the dead
organism should remain in undisturbed condition
Rapid burial: to avoid first microbial decomposition
Low O2 content (e.g., anaerobic sediment): to check aerobic
decomposition because most decomposers (e.g., fungi, most
decomposing bacteria and invertebrates) require oxygen for
metabolism.
Acidity or Low pH: limits the activity of decomposers
High concentration of toxic substances: to retard decay process
Protection against high wind: to prevent mechanical destruction
of organisms and from being carried away from its place of origin
Absence of strong water current: the wave action and rolling
boulders causing fragmentation of the organism

Higher depth of water: activity of aerobic decomposition is

restricted at higher depth; afford good protection from wave action

Fine textured sediments: allow lesser amount of O2 in inter-grain

space retarding the process of aerobic decomposition

Ample source of particulate sedimentary material

Internal (structural) factors:

Kinds of tissue: softer parts disintegrate early so the chances of

fossilization are better for harder parts (bark, wood,
sclerenchymatous & cutinized cells) and especially for those with
stiff skeletons
 Types of fossils
Body fossils Mega fossils
Micro fossils
(within 200 μm)
Entire or fragmentary parts of organisms preserved in a
variety of forms and modes revealing external, internal
morphology of organisms

Ichno fossils: Burrow, trail, trace etc.

Revealing activities and movement patterns as well as the
environment and geographical position of occurrence at
the time the organisms were alive

Organic molecules: Biomacromolecules,

DNA etc.
First record of a-DNA from plant: Extraction of cpDNA from
Magnolia latahensis leaves from Clarkia beds in northern Idaho, North America of
Early Miocene age (17-20 my old) yielded 820 bp fragments (Golenberg et. al. 1990,
1991)
Organic deposits: Peat, Lignite, Coal (solid forms)
Crude Petroleum (liquid forms)
Diatomaceous Earth
Limestone
Phosphorites
Stromatolite etc.

Raniganj coal Seam

(Sonepur Bazari,
Asansol)
 Crude petroleum

Diatomaceous
Limestone Stromatolite
Earth
Chemical fossils : Lignin, Cutin, Cutan, Suberin,
Sporopollenin, Algaenan,
Kerogen, Amino Acids,
Isoprenoids, Porphyrins,
Pristane, Phytane, HC,
Fatty Acids, Sugar

Sub fossils: Incomplete diagenesis (e.g. Peat)

Pseudo fossils: Mimicking fossils

 MODES OF PRESERVATION
James M. Schopf (1975) recognized 4 distinct modes of preservation

Coalified Compression

Impression

Compression & Impression

Cellular Permineralizations or Petrifaction

 Duripartic or Hard part preservation

Mold Mold

Cast Cast

Authigenic Preservation - Molds & Casts

 COALIFIED COMPRESSION & IMPRESSION
Deposition in the sedimentary environment

Cell walls of the plant part soften and then

collapse

Loss of gas, moisture, and other soluble

materials, because of pressure exerted by
accumulated sediments and water

The residues are altered and consolidated to

form black, coaly deposit

When the sediments became lithified,

splitting of the stratified rock reveals the
coalified compression on one surface and its
impression or counterpart on the opposite

They are widespread in sedimentary rocks

and are frequently found on shale layers
above coal seams.
Compressions
•The devolatilization of the functional groups comprising the organic compounds results in the
concentration of the non-volatile chemicals. Cellulose components are reduced by hydrolysis with an
increasing lignin component. Geochemical alteration follows biological alteration. This concentration
may result in the coalification of the plant part.
•Internal remain is obliterated and only thin carbonaceous film (original organic remains) is left
mainly on shale type of rock.
•If compression occurs anoxic and acidic conditions, compressed fossils provide intact cell contents
with much finer details. e.g. plant cuticle-distinctive cuticular pattern with epidermal features viz.,
venation, stomata, papillae, glands etc.
•Coal is also formed by this preservational type which represents heterogenous mixture of plants
originally growing in vast region of swamps.

Impressions
Complete or nearly complete degradation (often resistant waxy cuticles remain) of the plant part
within a sedimentary matrix may result in the preservation of it's negative imprint giving features of
surface structure and details of shape and size.

Adpression
A term used by Shute and Cleal (1987) to describe a plant fossil specimen showing a mixture of
compression and impression states.

Coalified Compression

Impression
 Cellular Permineralizations or Petrifaction
Plant part is completely immersed in water containing dissolved minerals

Reactive mineral-charged waters may permeate plant cells & react with cell walls

Crystallization of a variety of minerals on the cell walls and within the cell lumens

Permineralization of the organic matter i.e. rock matrix supporting the plant tissue

Important because it allows sectioning and study of the

internal structure of plant
 i. Siliceous:
deposition of colloidal silica or microcrystalline quartz particle
e.g. Rhynie Cherts

ii. Calcareous, Dolomite:

Microcrystalline calcite (CaCO3) or dolomite[CaMg(CO3)2]
e.g. coal balls. Calcareous deposition causes the formation of coal balls found in
Carboniferous rocks of northern hemisphere.
Coal balls are spherical to ovoid structures
occurring bituminous coal seams and fragments
of plants are found impregnated with cellular
details.
iii. Pyritic, Limonitic, Phosphatic:
Iron sulfide (FeS2), hydrated iron oxide (FeO(OH).nH2O) and
phosphatic (salt, ester or anion of phosphoric acids-H3PO4)
minerals

iv. Mummified:
Cryogenic (ice embedded): permeation of microcrystalline ice
or preservation under 00C in snow. e.g. Pleistocene frozen mammoth.
Amber (resin embedded)
Amberat (urine embedded)
AMBERAT: is fossilized form of midden of pack rat or wood rat(Neotoma)
Middens: waste piles that packrats construct out of fecal matter and urine. Packrats
incorporate pieces of plant material, bone, and other items they habitually collect from
their environment into their middens. The packrat's sticky, viscous urine acts like a
cement which binds the midden material together into a solid mass.

Packrats are widespread in arid western North America,

and have been collected as far north as British Columbia.
They are folivores, primarily getting their water from the
vegetation they eat (Wells, 1976).

First used in Quaternary Paleoecology by Phillip Wells

(Wells and Jorgensen, 1964), a Zoologist, doing vegetation
exploration on the Nevada Test Site.
Modern packrat (Neotoma cinerea) surrounded by
Similar cave deposits left by other small mammals have midden material in a cave in northwestern Nevada
been collected in caves of Australia, South America and the
Near East

SIGNIFICANCE: Fossil plant remains recovered from

ancient midden deposits are often perfectly preserved, can
be identified to species-level, and provide excellent material
for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon-dated fossil midden
assemblages provide detailed inventories of the plants and
animals that lived in the vicinity of the collection site during
past time periods and a long-term record of changing plant
communities and climate for a local area. Massive complex Pleistocene packrat midden (in the
alcove in the center) in a cave in eastern Nevada

https://geochange.er.usgs.gov/midden/: USGS/NOAA North American Packrat Midden Database

 Duripartic (Hard part preservation)
When plant parts are able to withstand
the degradational processes acting within
their final resting area, the resistant plant
parts are preserved with little alteration

Authigenic Cementation
As de-volatilization proceeds, microgeochemical gradients that may be present in fine-
grained clastics (particularly reactive clays minerals and available cations in the pore
waters) may cause the precipitation of carbonate minerals (calcite (CaCO3), siderite
(FeCO3)) around the organic matter. The result is the precipitation of a spherical to
elliptical concretion around the organic material.
Mold Authigenic Cementation
Molds & Casts
When the internal organization of a plant part
is degraded resulting in a void, this open area
may act as a mold. The mold may be in-filled
with clastic sediment or crystals. This casting
process results in the development of a fossil
that represents the internal (and sometimes
external) features of the original plant part.
Cast
 SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
Sedimentary rocks are one of three main types of rocks, along with igneous
and metamorphic which are formed on or near the Earth’s surface from the
compression of sediments in river, lake or ocean which are deposited by
natural weathering, erosion and transportation of existing rock materials
through different agents like wind, water, ice etc.

MOST FAVOURED SITE FOR FOSSIL

OCCURRENCE
Major Types of Rocks

Rock is a naturally occurring solid

aggregate of minerals.

The Earth's outer solid layer, the

lithosphere is made up of rock.
 Lithosphere
Crust (crust & upper
(5-70 km thick) most solid layer

Mantle

Mantle

Crust 2900 km

Core
Outer Core
5100 km

Inner Core Not to scale

6378 km
 SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

• Clastic or detrital: are formed from cemented

sediment grains that are fragments of preexisting
rocks. e.g. Shale, Conglomerate

• Chemical: are deposited by precipitation of

minerals from solution
Limestone: CaCO3; Dolomite: CaMg(CO3)2; Evaporites:
evaporation of seawater or a saline lake e.g. gypsum
(CaSO4.2H2O); Chert: entirely of silica

• Biologic or organic: are composed or organic

carbon compounds. e.g. Coal
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS COVER ABOUT THREE-
QUARTERS OF THE LAND SURFACE
SEDIMENT PARTICLES & DETRITAL OR CLASTIC
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
Diameter Sediment Clastic or Detrital
(mm) Sedimentary Rock
256+ Boulder Gravel Breccia
(angular particles)
64-256 Cobble

4-64 Pebble Conglomerate

(rounded particles)
2-4 Granule
1/16-2 Sand Sandstone
1/256-1/16 Silt Mud Siltstone
(mostly silt)
Less than Clay Shale or mudstone
1/256 (mostly clay)
Shale is the most common sedimentary rock
 SEDIMENTARY ROCK
MOST FAVOURED SITE FOR FOSSIL PRESERVATION
• Sedimentary rock- It formed from particles of older
rocks that have been broken apart by water or wind and
the gravel, sand, and mud settle down to the bottom in
rivers, lakes, and oceans or through chemical
precipitation.
• The sedimentary particles may bury living and dead
plants & animals on the lake or sea bottom. With the
passage of time and the accumulation of more particles,
and often with chemical changes, the sediments at the
bottom of the pile become rock which may have with
fossils if suitable conditions for fossilization met by those
dead organisms.
 Non-clastic rocks: formed by chemical precipitation
(settling out from a solution)
Halite or Rock Salt is chemical sedimentary rock which is formed when sea
water evaporates;
Chemical precipitation can also be caused by organisms e.g.
Limestone is made from broken pieces of seashell and fragments of
calcite produced by corals and algae;
Chert is formed from siliceous materials i.e. quartz

Biologic sedimentary rocks come from the

remains of organic matter
▪ Most important: COAL
▪ Anthracite coal results from the greatest pressure and releases the most
energy when burned.
▪ Other varieties: bituminous and lignite.
▪ “Petrified” (permineralized) wood
 IGNEOUS ROCKS

• Formed by solidification (crystallization) of melted minerals

• At the surface, LAVA hardens to form EXTRUSIVE

IGNEOUS rocks with tiny (FINE-GRAINED) crystals or no
crystal (GLASSY) texture e.g. Basalt

• Beneath the surface, MAGMA hardens to form INTRUSIVE

IGNEOUS rocks with easily visible (COARSE-GRAINED)
crystal texture e.g. Granite, Gabbro
 Metamorphic Rocks

• Metamorphism refers to change to existing rocks that take place in Earth’s

interior due to heat and pressure. The changes may be new texture, new
minerals assemblages, or both. Transformations occur in the solid state (i.e.
rock does not melt). The changed new rock is metamorphic rock.

REGIONAL METAMORPHISM: metamorphism takes place at considerable

depth at underground so affects a large area and it is result from plate
tectonics. Almost always foliated.

• CONTACT METAMORPHISM: mostly takes place not too far beneath

earth’s surface (less than 10 km) i.e. affects rocks on a local scale, such as
“baking” of sedimentary rocks adjacent to an intrusive contact. Mostly non
foliated.
“Foliated” rocks contain much mica and other
rocks that produce layering or banding

Rock Name Characteristic Minerals

Slate Clay & other sheet

silicates
Phyllite Mica

Schist Biotite and Muscovite

amphibole
Gneiss Feldspar
Non-foliated metamorphic rocks

Marble
(comes from limestone)

Dolomite marble
(from dolomite)

Quartzite
(from sandstone)

Hornfels
(from shale and basalt)
 Rock Cycle

❑The rock cycle is a fundamental concept in geology that

describes the dynamic transitions among the three main rock
types (sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous) through
geologic time .

❑The rock cycle is an illustration that explains how the 3 rock

types are related to each other and how processes change from
one type to another over time.

❑The original concept of the rock cycle is usually attributed to

James Hutton, father of geology from the eighteenth century.

❑Each type of rock is altered or destroyed when it is forced out

of its equilibrium conditions.
A diagram of the rock cycle. Legend: 1=magma;
2=crystallization (freezing of rock); 3=igneous rocks; 4=erosion;
5=sedimentation; 6=sediments & sedimentary rocks;
7=metamorphism; 8=metamorphic rocks; 9=melting
 Systematics & Nomenclature
Very rarely, the palaeobotanists unearth a whole plant as fossil
(fossil plant) rather they generally find detached plant parts of
leaf, stem, flower, spore, pollen grains etc. (plant fossils) as
fossilized forms through various modes of preservation.

“plant fossils are the physical objects taken out from the ground
that reveal evidence of long dead plants”

“fossil plants were the plants from which these fossilized

remains were derived”

Starting point of palaeobotanical nomenclature : Kaspar Maria

von Sternberg (1820) who first validly described Lepidodendron
obovatum for a bark fragment
 Systematics & Nomenclature
Since the Stockholm Code (Lanjouw & al. in Regnum Veg. 3. 1952) there have
been special rules for naming of fossils reflecting their frequent fragmentary
occurrence. As such, for fossil nomenclature ICBN & ICZN (now it is ICN)
are followed with some modifications
Form genus :Genus that can not be assigned reliably
to a single family.
e.g.
Stigmaria, Cyperites, Triletes
Organ genus : When relationships among different
parts of a plant are well established and
can be assigned to a family.
e.g.
Leaf: Glossopteris,
Root: Vertebraria,
Microsporangiate str.: Glossotheca,
Ovulate str.: Scutum, (Glossopteridaceae)

The details have changed over time, but in St. Louis Congress, 1999, the Code has
adopted the concept of “morphotaxa”
 MORPHOTAXA
A new nomenclatural concept, the MORPHOTAXON was introduced
replacing some aspects of the two old terms organ genus and form
genus (St. Louis Congress, 1999): “a fossil taxon which, for
nomenclatural purposes, comprises only the parts, life history stages, or
preservational states represented by the corresponding nomenclatural
type”.
MOST RECENT VIEWS
International Code of Nomenclature (ICN)
for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code)
Adopted by the Eighteenth International Botanical Congress
Melbourne, Australia, July 2011

The Nomenclature Section of ICN (2011) adopted a set of proposals

(for details see Cleal & Thomas in Taxon 59: 261–268; 312–313. 2010)
by which the concept of morphotaxa is abandoned
Art. 1.2 A taxon (diatom taxa excepted) the name of which is
based on a fossil type is a fossil-taxon. A fossil-taxon comprises the
remains of one or more parts of the parent organism, or one or more of their
life history stages, in one or more preservational states, as indicated in the
original or any subsequent description or diagnosis of the taxon (see also Art.
11.1 and 13.3).
Art. 11.1 Each family or taxon of lower rank with a particular circumscription, position, and
rank can bear only one correct name, special exceptions being made for nine families and one
However,
subfamily for which alternative names are permitted (see Art. 18.5 and 19.8).
the use of separate names is allowed for fossil-taxa that
represent different parts, life-history stages, or preservational
states of what may have been a single organisamal taxon or even
a single individual (Art. 1.2).
Art. 13.3 For nomenclatural purposes, a name is treated as pertaining to a
non-fossil taxon unless its type is fossil in origin (Art. 1.2). Fossil material
is distinguished from non-fossil material by stratigraphic
relations at the site of original occurrence. In cases of doubtful
stratigraphic relations, and for all diatoms, provisions for non-fossil taxa
apply.
 Usual suffixes/prefixes used for nomenclature
Leaf/Fronds : -ophyllum (Sphenophyllum)
-opteris (Archaeopteris)
Secondary Xylem : -oxylon (Araucarioxylon)
Microsporangiate str : -otheca (Glossotheca)
Ovulate structure : -ocarpon (Lepidocarpon)
-osperma (Archaeosperma)
Cone : -ostrobus (Lepidostrobus)
Seed : -testa (Pachytesta)
Spores : -spora (Lycospora)
-sporites (Laevigatosporites)
Pre-pollen, Pollen :-pollenites (Palmaepollenites)
 Reconstruction of
Williamsonia with branches, Reconstruction
leaf bases and leaf

Forms of evidence
▪Actual attachment
▪Similar anatomical characters
▪Frequency of association
Actual attachment
Charles Beck (1960) reconstructed Archaeopteris:
actual attachment of Late Devonian free sporing fern like
frond Archaeopteris + Callixylon stem bearing
gymnospermous secondary wood characters

Archaeopteris

Reconstructed
Archaeopteris
Callixylon Actual attachment
 Similar anatomical
characters
Oliver and Scott (1904)
reconstructed
Lyginopteris oldhamia:
Similar anatomical
feature, large capitate
gland,
on the surface of
dispersed stems
(Lyginopteris), leaves
(Sphenopteris) and
cupulate ovule
(Lagenostoma)
 Frequency of association
Reconstruction of the plant Medullosa:
Repeated occurrence of pteridopsermous stem Medullosa,
foliage of Alethopteris, seeds of Pachytesta and pollen bearing
structure Bernaultia as dispersed state in assemblage

Medullosa stem
Alethopteris

Bernaultia Pachytesta