The history of life is documented by fossils through the past 3.5 billion years. Paleobiology provides a unique long‐term perspective, which is important for three reasons: ancient life and environments can inform us about global change and the origins of modern biodiversity, and so provide information about how the world might change in the future; extinct plants and animals make up 99% of all species that ever lived, and so we need to know about them to understand the true scope of the tree of life; and extinct organisms did amazing things that no living plant or animal can do, and we need to explore their capabilities to assess the limits of form and function <...>

Seismology is a branch of geophysics that aims for the understanding of earth’s interior, through the analysis of ground motion. The science of seismology began with study of naturally occurring earthquakes. Seismologists soon found that seismic waves produced by earthquakes contained valuable information about earth’s interior (crust, mantle, and core). Later they discovered that similar but much weaker man-made seismic waves could be used to interpret the shallow structure of earth, to locate minerals, water, and petroleum resources.

Imagine walking on a rocky shore.You can see the pounding surf, hear stones clink together as waves recede, feel the wind blowing in your hair. But the cliffs don’t move and the ground doesn’t shake. Even though the Earth appears to be a firm foundation beneath your feet, it is a dynamic planet. Continents slowly shift position;mountains rise and then erode away.These motions escape casual observation because they are generally slow, although every year events such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes remind us that geologic change can be rapid. <...>

This book introduces the reader to the study of plant fossils, and is especially aimed at those who have had little previous experience of this type of palaeontology. We have provided an illustrated text that summarises the main groups of plants that occur as fossils and explains how one should go about investigating them. Practical guidance is given on techniques that can be used to reveal hidden details of anatomical and reproductive characters, as well as the sorts of features that are used to identify some of the most commonly found plant fossils. Many of the approaches that are used to interpret plant fossils are discussed and we show how they can be used by the palaeobotanist to increase our knowledge of plant evolution, palaeoecology, palaeogeography and stratigraphy.