Paleobotany is the science of fossil plant debris. The practical significance of paleontology

The science of plants is botany. It is closely connected with other sciences, one of which is paleobotany. This is the doctrine of the fossil remains of plants. It is difficult to overestimate its role, because thanks to the knowledge gained, we begin to understand the history of planet Earth, to learn about what life was like on it in those days when there were no people yet.

Description of Science

Paleobotany is part of paleontology: a science that studies extinct organisms. You can also come across the name phytopaleontology. The subject of its study is the world of flora of past eras. The main tasks of this branch of knowledge include:

• The study of the remains of fossil organisms to identify the features of their appearance and internal structure.
• Compilation of taxonomy of extinct representatives of the plant world, their classification.
• The study of their evolution and development from era to era.
• Analysis of how and for what reasons the change of one plant community to another took place.

So, extinct plants are the main subject of paleobotany study.

Communication with other sciences

Paleobotany is a branch of knowledge, a representative of the natural sciences cycle, which is closely interconnected with others. So, its interaction with geology is obvious. It is the data of botanical paleontology that help geologists determine the age of certain deposits of rocks, establish the conditions for their formation, which allows you to determine the direction of the search for minerals. Science also interacts with biology, giving an explanation of many evolutionary processes in plants, and provides information on how the ancestors of the present representatives of the fauna looked and what organs consisted of, how they were distributed on land in various geological eras.

In addition, a unique science is associated with some other disciplines:

• lithology - the science of the origin of sedimentary rocks;
• stratigraphy - determination of the age of volcanic and sedimentary rocks;
• paleoclimatology - the study of the climate of ancient eras;
• tectonics - analysis of the structure of the earth's crust.

Branches of science

What is paleobotany and the definition of this science, we examined above. Now let’s figure out which industries make it up. Of course, this selection was carried out very conditionally, since the parts of science are a single whole and are in close contact. Information on the main industries is presented in the table.

Each of these subsections is very important and provides science with valuable information.

Objects of study

Consider what paleobotany studies. Researchers have to work with the remains of extinct plants, often there is very little material for research, which creates certain difficulties. So, the objects of research of science are:

• Fossils and mummified plant debris.
• Prints. They are being studied by a subsection called ichnophytology.
• Seeds are microscopically paleocarpologists.
• Disputes and pollen use paleopalynology as a subject of consideration.
• Less likely to investigate is wood (an industry called paleoxylology) or leaves, the fruits of fossils.
• Plant tissue. This is done by paleostomatography.

In general, the fossilized remains of the flora of past eras are called fossillas. Scientists also explore wax, tar, and other organic formations of plants. Fragments of the bark, seeds and cones, spore membranes are best preserved.

Preservation types of extinct plants

Paleobotany is a science that has to deal with varying degrees of preservation of material. The following varieties of fossil remains are distinguished:

• Full safety. A very rare case and most often concerns representatives of the fauna.
• Casts - fragments of plants that have undergone petrification.
• Prints.
• Petrified remains.
• Organic walled microfossils - bacterial membranes, pollen and spores.

Paleobotany works with each of them.

Applicable Methods

We examined what paleobotany studies. Now let's get acquainted with the main methodology that this science uses. So, the following research forms are applied:

• The chemical destruction of coal helps to remove fossilized spores and fossil leaves.
• Methods of cellulose film allows using acid to dissolve the substance in which the remains are located without damaging them.
• Often, electron microscopes are used to study the cellular structure of plants .

Also, to obtain information on the features of the appearance and structure of fossil organisms, observation, anatomical study of sections and sections, the epidermis and cuticle are used.

A selection of interesting facts

Despite the fact that science has to deal with a very small amount of material, because plants, unlike animals, are almost completely destroyed due to decay, its discoveries are amazing. We offer you to familiarize yourself with a selection of useful and interesting facts from paleobotany:

• The first fossil representatives of the fauna belong to Precambrian. They are over 500 million years old.
• The science of paleobotany as a separate branch of knowledge was formed in 1828. It was then that the work of Adolf Theodore Braniard saw the light, in which the French botanist tried to give the world's first unified classification of fossils and modern plants.
• Algae dates back to the Proterozoic era.
• In ancient times, there were ferns, which propagated not by spores, as modern ones, but by seeds. There were so many of them that the era itself is often called the "age of ferns."

By studying this science, you can learn a lot about the life and characteristics of ancient plants, which differed from the representatives of the fauna known to us.

Problems

Paleobotany is a science that, for all its importance, has a number of problems. We highlight the key ones:

• Very little research material. So, if paleontologists have the opportunity to work with skeletons or even whole fossil animals preserved in permafrost, paleobotanists very rarely get plant organisms as a whole.
• Those remains that nevertheless go to researchers are most often modified organisms that have undergone decay.
• From the fragments found, it is very difficult to compose a complete picture, describe and systematize the plants.
• Due to the fact that very few fruits and flowers have survived to our days, scientists have not been able to identify either the ancestors of flowering plants, or the reason that they became dominant in the world of flora.

All this leads to the fact that our knowledge about the flora of ancient eras is very limited.

Value

What is the practical significance of paleobotany? Thanks to the information obtained during the study of prints or the remains of fossil plants, modern researchers draw more or less accurate conclusions about the age of landscapes. In addition, the study of fossils allows us to understand the evolutionary path that plants have gone through, to find out the age of each species, to understand the issue of common origin, which provides invaluable assistance to modern botany.

It is this science that helps in the exploration and search for minerals. Paleobotany is also important in the study of climate problems: by comparing data from past eras, researchers can make a forecast of modern climate development, build computer models of the weather, and even predict global warming.

Paleobotany is the most important branch of knowledge, which allows not only to plunge into the world of the past, but also to answer a number of quite modern questions. Therefore, it has an unconditional practical value.