Format: ORAL

Patrick S. Herendeen

Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, USA

Paleontology provides a unique window on the history of life. Fossils reveal biological diversity that is now extinct and will remain unknown unless fossilized remains of these organisms are discovered, described, and interpreted. Knowledge of extinct diversity is essential to understanding the full diversity and evolutionary history of plants or animals. Paleontological data can also illuminate the history of climate or biogeography or morphological diversity through time. However, consumers of paleontological data must be aware that the identifications of fossils have the potential to be wrong, just as the identifications of herbarium specimens can be wrong and must be verified by the investigator who is using the specimens. Similarly, the stated ages of fossils can be incorrect or lack precision. If the fossils are being used as calibration points for molecular dating analyses, for example, these sources of potential error must be taken seriously. These cautions notwithstanding, this is an exciting time in plant paleontology and the fields that draw on paleobotanical data. Mesozoic age fossil seed plants have been the subject of much research in recent decades. A diversity of early fossil angiosperms have been described from a wide variety of fossil sites, and research is being conducted in geographic areas that were previously neglected. Documenting the morphology and timing of appearance of the earliest flowers continues to be of broad evolutionary and ecological interest. In addition, numerous fossil gymnospermous seed plants have also been described from many geographic areas, and have included some very interesting newly discovered taxa. Understanding the origin of angiosperms and their phylogenetic relationships is important, but it cannot be accomplished without a detailed understanding of the diversity, morphology and relationships of gymnospermous seed plants. While much progress has been made there are still many discoveries to be made in the fossil record of gymnosperms.