Principles of typology and of nomenclature of fossil plants

Abstract

The possibility of describing and naming fossil plants as if they were living plants was realized even by the founders of palaeobotany, Schlotheim, Sternberg and Adolphe Brongniart. However, even at that time it was clear that special principles were necessary for the typology of fossil plants as well as for their nomenclature. Having introduced the genera Cladophlebis, Pecopteris, Neuropteris, Odontopteris, Taeniopteris and some others, Brongniart assigned to them the status of form groups with indefinite relation to the natural genera. Later such form groups received the name of parataxa. The term ‘parataxon’ itself has been introduced in palaeozoology for groups of generic rank, used in the systematics of conodonts, apticha, anapticha, and of other detached parts of animals. It is advisable to use the same term in palaeobotany for form groups of any rank, not only for genera. Thus, such suprageneric groups as anteturmas, turmas, subturmas, and infraturmas in palynology may be considered to be parataxa.