Sciences and Teaching of Natural Systems

• Aims and scopes of Palaeobotany. Relations of Palaeobotany with other disciplines (Botany, Geology, Ecology, Archaeology, Genetics) Fossil plants. (4 hours) • Nomenclature. Macro- and micro-fossils. How fossil plants are formed and preserved: unaltered plant remains, impressions, compressions, coal and charcoal, permineralization. (4 hours) • Sampling techniques from lacustrine sediments: aims and methods. Preliminary investigations. Drilling techniques. Sampling from archaeological contexts: planning and execution. Aims and scopes of archaeobotany. (4 hours) • Palaeobotanical techniques: fossil wood, leaves, cuticles, algae, carpological remains, and phytoliths. Palynology: Materials and methods in the field and in laboratory. Pollen morphology. (12 hours in the lab) • Qualitative and quantitative analyses of fossil pollen. Pollen diagrams. Zonation of pollen records. Intepretation of pollen records. Reconstruction of past flora, vegetation, climate, and environment. Palaeovegetation maps. Palaeoecology of plant populations. (8 hours) • Human impact on past natural landscape. The transition from wild to domesticated plants: age and geographical distribution of the earliest remains of cereals, pulses, fruit trees and nuts, oil- and fibreproducing crops, ornamental plants, spices. (6 hours) • Evolution of plants: theories and fossil documents. The earliest record of life on Earth. Evolution of algae. Early land plants with conducting tissue: fragmentary remains. Rhyniophytes, Lycophyta, Sphenophytes. Ferns, Pteridosperms and Progymnosperms. Origin and evolution of the seed habit. Gondwana Flora. Evolution of Gymnosperms. Origin and evolution of Angiosperms. (10 hours) • Origin and evolution of modern flora and vegetation: Cenozoic environments. Glacial-interglacial cycles. Glacial refugia and Holocene development of vegetation. Plant palaeoecology and environmental management and conservation. Linking Palaeobotany and Genetics: new frontiers in Palaeobotany. (4 hours)

Basic knowledge of Botany, Geology and Palaeontology

Suggested textbooks: - Faegri K., Iversen J., Kaland P.E., Krzywinski K. (1989) Textbook of Pollen Analysis. Hafner, New York. - Willis K.J., McElwain J.C. – The evolution of plants; seconda edizione, Oxford University Press; 2013. - Appunti delle lezioni su e-learning

The course includes lectures, laboratory work and seminars. The course will be taught in the first semester: if the COVID-19 health emergency will allow the lessons to be held in person, the course will be delivered in the traditional way, otherwise it will be delivered remotely in accordance with what will be established by the competent authorities and by the provisions of the University.

Attendance to the laboratory work is mandatory

To pass the exam it is necessary to achieve a grade of not less than 18/30. The student must demonstrate to have acquired sufficient knowledge in the identification of plant fossils, in the reconstruction of plant landscapes of the past, in the evolution of plants, in the interpretation of paleobotanical data in paleoclimatic terms and in relation to human activity. The exam includes the identification of plant fossils, and an oral examination of the acquired knowledge.

The course includes lectures, laboratory work and seminars.