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.

Algae

Charophytes

Chlorophytes

Phycological research

• Harvey (2023) interprets a well-preserved assemblage of acritarchs from the Cambrian Stage 4 Forteau Formation (Canada) as fossil material of planktic green algae with coenobial colony formation.
• Yang et al. (2023) reinterpret Protomelission as an early dasycladalean green alga; however, Xiang et al. (2023) subsequently interpret Protomelission as a scleritome of Cambroclavus, which in turn is considered by the authors to be a probable epitheliozoan-grade eumetazoan like the contemporaneous chancelloriids, unrelated to bryozoans or to dasycladalean algae.

Lycophytes

Lycophyte research

• A study on the ground-level trunk vasculature of Sigillaria approximata from the Pennsylvanian Calhoun Coal of Illinois (United States) is published by D'Antonio (2023), who finds evidence indicating that wood growth at the base of the trunk was different from the arborescent lycopsid wood growth model of Cichan (1985).
• Turner et al. (2023) report diverse phyllotaxis in leaves of the lycopod Asteroxylon mackiei from the Devonian Rhynie chert (United Kingdom), including whorls and spirals, and interpret this finding as suggesting that Fibonacci-style patterning was not ancestral to living land plants, as well as indicative of developmental similarities between lycophyte leaves and reproductive structures.

Ferns and fern allies

Pteridological research

• A study on fossils of Pecopteris from the Mazon Creek fossil beds (Illinois, United States), indicative of association of a suite of saturated phytohopanoid and aromatised terpenoid diagenetic biomarker products with true fern fossils, is published by Tripp et al. (2023).
• Blanco-Moreno & Buscalioni (2023) identify Sphenopteris wonnacottii as a junior synonym of Coniopteris laciniata, provide whole plant reconstruction of C. laciniata, and interpret the variability of the pinnules of C. laciniata as likely caused by the submersion of the apical part of fronds in water during their development.

Ginkgophytes

Conifers

Cheirolepidiaceae

Cordaitaceae

Cupressaceae

Pinaceae

Podocarpaceae

Voltziales

Other conifers

Conifer research

• Trümper et al. (2023) report the discovery of fossil trees from the Athesian Volcanic Group (Italy) interpreted as remains of a Permian (Kungurian) forest where conifers were the major arborescent plants, substantiating the presence of coniferopsids in wetlands around the Carboniferous/Permian boundary.
• Slodownik et al. (2023) describe new fossil material (including the first putative female reproductive remains) of Araucarioides linearis from the Eocene Macquarie Harbour Formation (Australia), interpret Araucarioides sinuosa to be a junior synonym of A. linearis, and consider A. linearis to be a non-Agathis agathioid belonging to an extinct lineage that originated in the Cretaceous, lived in high paleolatitudes and had adaptations to seasonal environments which allowed it to survive the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
• Andruchow-Colombo et al. (2023) review the fossil record of Podocarpaceae, and argue that the earliest reliable occurrences of members of this family are from the Jurassic of both hemispheres.

Flowering plants

Monocots

Alismatales

Arecales

Basal eudicots

Basal eudicot research

• Evidence from the palynomorph fossil record, interpreted as indicating that members of the family Proteaceae reached South African Cape in the Late Cretaceous from North-Central Africa rather than from Australia across the Indian Ocean, is presented by Lamont, He & Cowling (2023).

Superasterids

Apiales

Boraginales

Ericales

Icacinales

Lamiales

Solanales

General Superasterid research

Superrosids

Cucurbitales

Fabales

Fagales

Malpighiales

Malvales

Myrtales

Oxalidales

Rosales

Sapindales

Saxifragales

Other superrosids

Superrosid research

• Nishino et al. (2023) study the composition of a fossil forest from the Miocene Nakamura Formation of the Mizunami Group (Japan), including stumps of Wataria parvipora and leaves of Byttneriophyllum tiliifolium, and interpret their finding as suggesting that W. parvipora and B. tiliifolium were parts of the same plant, as well as suggesting that Byttneriophyllum-bearing plants might have belonged to the subfamily Helicteroideae.

Other angiosperms

• A study on the affinities of Santaniella, based on data from new fossil material from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation (Brazil), is published by Pessoa et al. (2023), who don't support the interpretation of Santaniella as a ranuculid, and consider it to be a mesangiosperm of uncertain affinities, possibly a magnoliid.
• Pessoa, Ribeiro & Christenhusz (2023) describe new fossil material of Araripia florifera from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil, interpret its anatomy as indicating that it did not belong to the family Calycanthaceae, and assign it to the new family Araripiaceae in the stem group of Laurales.

Angiosperm research

• A study aiming to determine the affinities of 24 exceptionally preserved fossil flowers is published by López-Martínez et al. (2023).
• A study aiming to determine the phylogenetic relationships of nine putative magnolialean fossils is published by Doyle & Endress (2023).
• A study on the diversification of the flowering plant throughout their evolutionary history is published by Thompson & Ramírez-Barahona (2023), who report evidence of stable extinction rates through time and find no evidence of a significant impact of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event on the extinction rates of major flowering plant lineages.

Other plants

Other plant research

• A study on the evolutionary history of Marchantiopsida, as indicated by data from extant and fossil taxa, is published by Flores et al. (2023).
• Decombeix et al. (2023) document tyloses in Late Devonian Callixylon wood.
• A study on the anatomy and affinities of Tingia unita, based on data from specimens from the Permian Taiyuan Formation (China), is published by Yang, Wang & Wang (2023), who confirm that T. unita was a progymnosperm belonging to the group Noeggerathiales.
• A study on the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of cycads, based on data from extant and fossil taxa, is published by Coiro et al. (2023).
• Evidence from nitrogen isotopic measurements from fossilized cycad leaves and ancestral state reconstructions, interpreted as indicating that symbiosis of with N₂-fixing cyanobacteria wasn't ancestral within cycads but rather arose independently in the lineages leading to living cycads during or after the Jurassic, is published by Kipp et al. (2023).
• Fu et al. (2023) report the presence of ovules enclosed within the ovaries of specimens of Nanjinganthus dendrostyla, and consider their findings to be consistent with the interpretation of Nanjinganthus as an Early Jurassic angiosperm.

Palynology

Palynological research

• Vajda et al. (2023) interpret Ricciisporites tuberculatus as an aberrant pollen procuded by Lepidopteris ottonis plants, and interpret its fossil record as indicative of the competitive success of plants which adopted the asexual reproductive strategy under stressed environmental conditions before and during the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event; their interpretation of Ricciisporites and Cycadopites as produced by the same plant is subsequently contested by Zavialova (2024) and reaffirmed by Vajda et al. (2024).
• A study on the vegetation in Central Africa from the middle Aptian to early Albian, as indicated by palynomorphs from the Doseo Basin in the Central African Rift system, is published by Dou et al. (2023), who identify two assemblages of spore and pollen fossils, and interpret the differences between the assemblages as indicative of a vegetation change related to change from relatively arid to humid climate.
• Malaikanok et al. (2023) describe fossil pollen grains of members of the family Fagaceae from the Oligocene to Miocene Ban Pa Kha Subbasin of the Li Basin (Thailand), and interpret the studied fossils as indicating that, contrary to previous interpretations of the palynological record, tropical Fagaceae-dominated forests existed in northern Thailand at least since the late Paleogene and persisted into the modern vegetation of Thailand.
• A study on the environmental changes in the Lake Baikal region during the Marine Isotope Stage 3, as indicated by palynological data, is published by Shichi et al. (2023), who find that the dispersal of Homo sapiens into Baikal Siberia coincided with climate changes resulting in warm and humid conditions and vegetation changes.
• Evidence from the study of Last Interglacial pollen records across Europe, interpreted as indicating that European forests before the arrival of Homo sapiens included substantial open and light woodland elements, is presented by Pearce et al. (2023).

Research

• A study on the evolution of the phenotypic disparity of plants, based on data from extant and fossil taxa, is published by Clark et al. (2023), who find that the morphological distinctiveness of extant plant group is in part the result of extinction of fossil plants with intermediate morphologies, and report evidence of a pattern of episodic sharp increases of morphological diversity throughout the evolutionary history of plants.
• A study on the evolution of the complexity of vascular plant reproductive structures, indicating that major reproductive innovations were associated with increased integration through greater interactions among component parts, is published by Leslie & Mander (2023).
• Evidence from mercury concentration and isotopic signatures of marine sedimentary rock samples spanning from the Cambrian to Permian, interpreted as indicating that vascular plants were already widely distributed on land during the Ordovician-Silurian transition, is presented by Yuan et al. (2023).
• Evidence indicating that the knowledge of the early plant diversity from the latest Silurian–Early Devonian fossil record is at least partly affected by the variation of the rock record is presented by Capel et al. (2023).
• A study on early land plant diversity patterns across known paleogeographical units (Laurussia, Siberia, Kazakhstania, Gondwana) throughout the Silurian and Devonian periods is published by Capel et al. (2023)
• A study on the survivorship and migration dynamics of plants from the paleocontinent Angarida during the Frasnian-Tournaisian internal, as indicated by fossil record from the Siberian platform (Russia), is published by Dowding, Akulov & Mashchuk (2023).
• Barrón et al. (2023) study the floral assemblages from the Cretaceous Maestrazgo Basin (Spain), providing evidence of the existence of conifer woodlands and fern/angiosperm communities thriving in the mid‐Cretaceous Iberian Desert System, and report that the studied assemblages can generally be related to others from Europe and North America, but also included plants that were typical for northern Gondwana.
• A study on the fossil material of plants from the Cenomanian deposits of the Western Desert (Egypt) is published by El Atfy et al. (2023), who report the presence of five main vegetation types, and interpret the studied fossils as indicative of an overall warm and humid climate, punctuated by repeated phases of drier conditions.
• Moreau & Néraudeau (2023) describe an assemblage of Cenomanian plants from a new paleontological site La Gripperie-Saint-Symphorien (Charente-Maritime, France), which (unlike most of Albian-Cenomanian coastal floras from the Aquitaine Basin) is dominated by angiosperms.
• A study on the mid-Eocene vegetation in the southern Central Andes, based on spore-pollen record from the Casa Grande Formation (Jujuy, Argentina), is published by Tapia et al. (2023), who interpret their findings as indicative of a plant community with no close analogue in the modern South American vegetation, as well as indicative of subtropical or tropical conditions and frost-free winters.
• Description of fossil wood from the Brown Sands and Flat Sands localities in the Pliocene Usno Formation (Lower Omo valley, Ethiopia) is published by Jolly-Saad & Bonnefille (2023), who report that the studied assemblages strongly differ from other Miocene and Pliocene wood assemblages from Ethiopia, and interpret them as indicative of a seasonal climate and more humid climatic conditions compared to the present, but also as indicative of instability of climatic and environmental conditions, with significant changes in the composition of the tree cover during the time of existence of Australopithecus afarensis.
• A study on changes in functional diversity of plants from southeast Australia during the last 12,000 years, inferred from long-term pollen records, is published by Adeleye et al. (2023).
• The oldest flower and seed fossils of the wind-pollinated besom heaths, Erica sect. Chlorocodon, were found in Madeira Island within a 1.3 million-year-old fossil deposit.

References