Plants Invade The Land. Evolutionary And Environmental Perspectives

WHAT DO WE KNOW about the origins of plants on land, from an evolutionary and an environmental perspective ? The essays in this collection present a synthesis of our present state of knowledge, integrating current information in paleobotany with physical, chemical, and geological data. Many chapters include new primary data and others document new findings. The combination of approaches and topics presents a comprehensive view of what we now know about early terrestrial organisms and their environment. Stretching from the Ordovician to the Upper Devonian (500-360 million years ago), the book covers the period of major global change as a result of diversification of plants and their impact on the environment. The first several chapters document early land inhabitants, ranging from protistan to plant and animal ; later chapters deal with data and interpretation of critical structural, biochemical, and physiological adaptations necessary for terrestrial habitation. Overall, the essays include discussions of the interplay of plants and their environments, or plants and other coeval organisms (animals, fungi), and suggest further avenues of investigation.