Originally published in 1993, this second edition of a successful textbook describes and explains in a refreshingly clear way the origin and evolution of plants as revealed by the fossil record and summarises paleobotanical information relevant to our understanding of the relationships between the major plant groups, extant and extinct. As in the first edition, the text is profusely illustrated with line illustrations and half-tones. For those students with little knowledge of plant structure and morphology there is a brief resume of those features of extant plants that will be needed to gain a better understanding of the fossil record. Summarising charts are also used to help students visualise the interpretative material.

This new edition of a successful textbook describes and explains in a refreshingly clear way the origin and evolution of plants revealed by the fossil record, and summarizes paleobotanical information relevant to our present understanding of the relationships between the major plant groups, extant and extinct. New ideas and theories pertaining to such topics as the origin and evolution of eucaryotes, the early evolution of ferns, the origin of seeds, and the origin and early evolution of gymnosperms and angiosperms are included, as is the cladistic method and its results. Paleoecology is a theme discussed in the new edition, ranging from the Precambrian to the Tertiary, with a new chapter wholly devoted to the paleoecology of Pennsylvanian coal swamps. One of the major additions is a new chapter discussing the paleobotany of the flowering plants, a topic that was given only a brief treatment in the first edition. As in the first edition the text is profusely illustrated with line illustrations and halftones. For those students with little knowledge of plant structure and morphology there is a brief resumé of those features of extant plants that will be needed to gain a better understanding of the fossil record. Summarizing charts are also used to help students visualize the interpretative material. All of the summarizing charts have been updated and they reflect new ideas about the relationships and temporal distributions of the major plant groups. The quantity of illustrations in this new edition has been increased. In particular, there are more photographs of actual fossil material and there are reconstructions of many ancient plants that are now more-or-less completely understood. The book is designed so that selected parts can be used for one-semester undergraduate courses or graduate seminars in paleobotany where the subject material is limited or for two-semester courses. It can also be used as a supplement to courses in evolutionary botany, morphology and anatomy.