Palaeoecology of selected species of Ferns

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985831%3A_____%2F18%3A00489633" target="_blank" >RIV/67985831:_____/18:00489633 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Palaeoecology of selected species of Ferns

Original language description

This chapter is a review of modern studies of ferns, based on chloroplast markers and BEAST analysis (Testo and Sundue, 2016). It includes the ecology of ferns, and their entire history, from their first appearance through currently living specimens. Ferns have been an important part of plant assemblages, from as far back as the Palaeozoic. The first ferns (Pteridophyta) appeared in the Devonian, and separation of the ordinal-ranked clades can be traced back at least to the Carboniferous Period (Taylor et al., 2009). The earliest representatives of ferns of the Cladoxylopsida type are known from the Middle Devonian. They were characterized anatomically by a dissected vascular system, consisting of a variable number of primary xylem segments and radially elongate primary xylem ribs (Berry and Stein, 2000). The largest dispersion of ferns was during the Carboniferous period. It was a large expansion of herbaceous, epiphytic and tree ferns, for example, genera Discopteris Stur, Oligocarpia Gӧppert, Pecopteris Brongniart, and Sphenopteris Brongniart. The era of the Upper Devonian through the Permian is called the Younger Palaeophytic (Kvaček, 2000), and it saw the growth of fern-like fronds, called Pteridosperms. Their fossils are often confused with true ferns, and they are found together with sphenophytes, lycophyte trees and Cordaites. These plants were the largest and most extensive members of forests during the Carboniferous, and they form an important component of today's black coal seams. During the Upper Permian, all gymnosperm numbers declined, although ferns still played a significant role and kept their ecological niche. The subsequent era, from the Triassic through the Lower Cretaceous is called the Mesophytic (Kvaček, 2000). In the Upper Cretaceous, populations of ferns declined, and angiosperms became more abundant. This change of population dominance signalled the beginning of the Cenophytic era. However, even today there are places where ferns are dominant. Currently, more than 10,000 species can be found around the world in a wide variety of habitats (Taylor et al., 2009).

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10506 - Paleontology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Ferns: Ecology, Importance to Humans and Threats

ISBN

978-1-53613-018-8

Number of pages of the result

23

Pages from-to

97-119

Number of pages of the book

178

Publisher name

Nova Science Publishers

Place of publication

New York

UT code for WoS chapter

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