Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow very slowly and live very long. Because of their superficial resemblance to palms or ferns, they are sometimes mistaken for them, but they are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms (naked-seeded), meaning their unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific species of beetle. Both male and female cycads bear cones (strobili), somewhat similar to conifer cones.
Araucariaceae – also known as Araucarians – is a family of coniferous trees, with three living genera, Araucaria, Agathis, and Wollemia. While the family was a common component of the flora globally during the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, in their native distribution they are now largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, except for a few species of Agathis in Malesia.
Glossopteris is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed plants known as Glossopteridales. The name Glossopteris refers only to leaves, within the framework of form genera used in paleobotany.
Ctenolophon is the only genus in the flowering plant family Ctenolophonaceae. It has two recognized species:
Hicksbeachia is a genus of two species of trees in the family Proteaceae. They are native to rainforests of northern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland. They are commonly known as red bopple nut or beef nut due to the bright red colour of their fruits.
Droseridites is a genus of extinct plants of possible droseracean or nepenthacean affinity. It is a form taxon known only from fossil pollen. Species assigned to this genus originate from numerous regions of the world, including Europe, India, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Kerguelen Islands.
Beauprea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Its 13 extant species are endemic to New Caledonia, though closely related forms have been found in the fossil records of Australia and New Zealand. Its closest extant relatives are the African Protea and Faurea.
Aquillapollenites is an extinct morphogenus of Late Cretaceous angiosperm pollen grain. Aquillapollenites was a very large group containing something like 80 total species, but all of them were typified by their triprojectate structure: three processes extend from the equator of the pollen grain and one process extends upwards to each pole, giving Aquillapollenites the shape of a child's jack. This strange shape may improve the buoyancy of the pollen grain. Colpi occupy each terminus of the equatorial projectates, making Aquillapollenites tricolporate.
Agathoxylon is a form genus of fossil wood, including massive tree trunks. Although identified from the late Palaeozoic to the end of the Mesozoic, Agathoxylon is common from the Carboniferous to Triassic. Agathoxylon represents the wood of multiple conifer groups, including both Araucariaceae and Cheirolepidiaceae, with late Paleozoic and Triassic forms possibly representing other conifers or other seed plant groups like "pteridosperms".
Nilssonia is a genus of fossil foliage traditionally assigned to the Cycadophyta either in Cycadales or their own order Nilssoniales, though the relationships of this genus with the Cycadales have been put into question on chemical grounds.
This article contains papers in paleobotany that were published in 2016.
This article records new taxa of plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2017, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that are scheduled to occur in the year 2017.
This article records new taxa of plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2018, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that occurred in the year 2018.
Baiera is a genus of prehistoric gymnosperms in the order Ginkgoales. It is one of the oldest fossil foliage types of Ginkgoales, and is related to the genera Ginkgo and Ginkgoites. Fossils of Baiera are found worldwide, and have been known from the Permian to the Cretaceous.
The Tupuangi Formation is a geological formation in New Zealand, only exposed on Pitt Island in the Chatham Islands. It is the oldest exposed sedimentary unit within the archipelago. It was deposited in terrestrial deltaic to paralic conditions during the Cenomanian to Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous. During this time period the Chatham Islands were attached to Antarctica within the Antarctic Circle, at approximately 70° to 80° south.
Circumpolles is a gymnosperm pollen type that is important in biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental reconstruction. It characterizes the time between the middle Triassic to the middle Cretaceous Periods. This pollen has a unique morphology: it has a circular, equatorial colpus, which divides the pollen grain into two hemispheres. Circumpolles is also unique as it is the only gymnosperm with well developed nexinal columellae.
This article records new taxa of fossil plants that are scheduled to be described during the year 2021, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleobotany that are scheduled to occur in the year 2021.
Dinophyton is an extinct genus of gymnosperm found in late Triassic beds in North America. Its taxonomy is debated, but it may be a gnetophyte with bisaccate pollen.
This paleobotany list records new fossil plant taxa that were to be described during the year 2022, as well as notes other significant paleobotany discoveries and events which occurred during 2022.
This paleobotany list records new fossil plant taxa that were to be described during the year 2023, as well as notes other significant paleobotany discoveries and events which occurred during 2023.
