Plant Palaeobiology Research Group

The study of fossil plants in the Department of Earth Sciences involves interdisciplinary research with several areas of geology, biology and chemistry. Current major fields of research interest include:

•   The history and impact of fire

•   Terrestrial palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate proxies

•   Molecular palaeobiology

•   Events at the Cretaceous-Tertiary, Palaeocene/Eocene and Eocene/Oligocene boundaries

•   The evolutionary interaction of animals and plants

•    Ecology and evolution of Carboniferous vegetation

•    Evolution of Tertiary terrestrial ecosystems

•    Palynology and palynofacies as palaeoenvironmental indicators

•    Land plants as sources of oil and coal and the evolution of coal-forming vegetation

•    Entombment of vegetation by pyroclastic flows