Plant life forms in the fossil record: When did the first canopy flowers appear?
Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - 00:31
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Most plant fossils are isolated organs, making it difficult to reconstruct the type of plant life or its ecosystem structure. Botanists have now used leaf vein density, a trait visible on leaf compression fossils, to document the occurrence of stratified forests with a canopy dominated by flowering plants.