Paleobotany and the evolution of plants / Wilson N. Stewart, Gar W. Rothwell.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface Preface to First Edition 1. Introduction 2. Plant fossils: preservation, preparation and age determination 3. The fossil record: systematics, reconstruction and nomenclature 4. Life in the Precambian 5. Diversification of the Fungi 6. Diversification among the algae and related plants 7. How the land turned green: speculation 8. How the land turned green: Bryophyta 9. How the land turned green: vascular plants, primitive types 10. The evolution of microphylls and adaxial sporangia 11. The isoetalean clade 12. Paleoecology of the Pennsylvanian coal swamps 13. More diversity in the Devonian: Trimerophytopsida 14. The origin of the Sphenopsida 15. Unique and extinct: the Upper Paleozoic sphenophylls 16. The origin of the horsetails 17. Putative ferns of the Paleozoic 18. The emergence of the Marattiales and Ophioglossales 19. Filicales of the Carboniferousv20. The emergence of the modern Filicales, Salviniales and Marsileales 21. Free-sporing plants with gymnospermous secondary wood 22. Gymnosperm reproduction: early evolution 23. Paleozoic gymnosperms with fernlike leaves 24. Cycads: origins and relationships 25. The enigmatic cycadeoids 26. More innovation and diversification among gymnosperms 27. The record of a living fossil: Ginkgo 28. The first coniferophytes 29. The diversification of conifers and taxads 30. The origin and early evolution of angiosperms 31. Angiosperms: diversification, radiation, and modernization 32. Major evolutionary events and trends: in retrospect Index.