Taphonomic considerations for plant evolutionary investigations

Abstract

Taphonomic processes play the underlying role in the characteristics of fossil plant assemblages. Their influence on this data set, from which we interpret evolutionary trends within lineages and clades, often is not considered or taken into account. Examples are provided to illustrate the effects that plant life strategy, environments and ecological associations, original biochemical constituents, and the nature of depositional regimes have on plant part representation in subfossil and fossil assemblages. It is recommended that fossil assemblages be evaluated within depositional and sedimentological context before the data set is utilized for higher order synthetic investigations.