In January 2025, the scientific publisher SpringerNature published a two-volume work entitled "Brazilian Paleofloras - from Paleozoic to Holocene", which is dedicated to the plants of Brazil's geological history - from the fossilised evidence of the colonisation of originally barren terrestrial dry land over 400 million years ago to the Ice Age of our time.
In 32 chapters totalling 1362 pages, the book illustrates the coming and going of plant life, their constantly changing habitats, but also their relationships with other organisms and their role in times of drastic environmental change.
Several centuries of research history and generations of editors stand for the contents analysed here. The three editors, Prof. Dr Roberto Iannuzzi (University of Porto Allegre), Prof. Dr Ronny Rößler (Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz) and Dr Lutz Kunzmann (Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden), have drawn on the expertise of 116 authors from all over the world, primarily from Brazil. These include researchers from various universities and museums as well as citizen scientists and palaeobotany enthusiasts.
Further information: https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2025/02/06/flora-brasiliens-es-gruente-so-gruen-vor-400-millionen-jahren
When Chemnitz was on the equator and what is now Brazil had a land connection with Europe...
In the summer of 2024, the fossil treasures of the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz also came to the attention of two guest researchers from Brazil. The Chemnitz Petrified Forest and the Petrified Forests of Brazil share a similar age of around 290 million years. They once grew at roughly the same distance from the equator.
"This implies that the fossilised plants are evidence of comparable climatic conditions," says Prof. Dr Ronny Rößler, Director of the Museum für Naturkunde.
