Stephen McLoughlin

TL;DR: The broad succession of pre-angiosperm floras is documents, the distinctive elements of the Early Cretaceous Gondwanan floras immediately preceding the appearance of angiosperms are highlighted and it is suggested that latitudinal controls strongly influenced the composition of GONDwananFloras through time even in the absence of marine barriers between Gondwana and the northern continents.

TL;DR: The degree of variability in flower coloration for particular angiosperm species matched the range of reflectance colours that can only be discriminated by bees that have experienced differential conditioning, suggesting a requirement for plasticity in the nervous systems of pollinators to allow generalization of flowers of the same species while overcoming the possible presence of non-rewarding flower mimics.

TL;DR: A multi-proxy Permo-Triassic record from Australia is reported, resolving the timing of local terrestrial plant extinction and the relationship with environmental changes, andPalaeoclimate modelling suggests a moderate shift to warmer summer temperatures and amplified seasonality in temperature across the EPE, and warmer and wetter conditions for all seasons into the Early Triassic.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors placed the Permian-Triassic boundary within the Amery Group of the Lambert Graben at the contact between the Bainmedart Coal Measures and overlying Flagstone Bench Formation, based on the first regular occurrence of Lunatisporites pellucidus and the first appearance of Aratrisporites and Lepidopteris species.

TL;DR: Charting the broad patterns of vascular plant evolution for Gondwana against the major global environmental shifts and events is attempted here for the first time, based on the analysis of the major vascular plant-bearing formations of the southern continents correlated against the standard geological time-scale.