GENSEL, PATRICIA G. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. - Plants, fossils, and evolution: Lessons from the fossil hunters.
In paleobotany, and all other areas of botany, broad dissemination of
the nature and significance of botanical information to lay persons,
teachers, other scientists, and government officials is needed more
than ever, in order to better educate them about plants and the value
of understanding plant biology and diversity and the patterns and
processes of evolution. The following is a template for sharing such
information; merely substitute specifics from your area of inquiry in
place of the underlined words. The plant fossil record, while
incomplete, provides information about the history of plant
life as well as contributes an historical perspective
important in developing and shaping diverse investigations, including
molecular approaches, of extant plants or other organisms. Major
discoveries are not entirely the result of chance; in some cases
specific questions were or are being pursued; examples are presented
of fossil hunters who searched for, and found, evidence of 1) the
pre-Silurian existence of land plants; 2) the presence of
gametophytes in the Early Devonian; 3) the Devonian occurrence
and radiation of seed plants; and 4) the Early Cretaceous
radiation of angiosperms with great variation and innovation in
floral evolution. In addition to such benchmark events, much has
been learned about [insert specifics about your own field here]
how and why plants have evolved; how different plants are related
to one another; homology of tissues (meristems) or organs such as
roots, leaves, or reproductive structures; the composition of past
communities or vegetation associations and what they tell us about
past climates, adaptive strategies; variations in reproduction, and
importance of competition; and the distribution of various taxa
throughout time. Integrating data from fossils with that
derived from modern plants, at all levels from molecules to
whole organisms, promises to enrich our knowledge and allow for
predictions of future changes.
Key words: education, evolution, fossil hunters, paleobotany