Palaeobotany

Palaeobotany is a discipline within palaeontology (the study of fossils) that is particularly focused on plant fossils.

Palaeobotanists study a very mixed collection comprising a variety of organisms, not all of which are plants; thus they are also interested in cyanobacteria, algae and even mushrooms.

These display cases contain fossil plants from the Museum’s collection; they are presented according to the groups defined by botanical classification.

Stromatolites

Evidence of the first forms of life

For almost four billion years, cyanobacteria living on the ocean’s edges have built rocky structures, called stromatolites, using a biological process; this mineralisation, using elements dissolved in the water, encases bacterial organic matter.

Cyanobacteria, carrying out photosynthesis, are at the origin of the modification of our atmosphere which today is rich in oxygen.

Mushrooms

Neither animal, nor plant…

Despite the rarity of mushroom remains that are clearly visible by the naked eye, fossilised mycelium filaments and spores are abundant in very ancient sediments. This carpophore, corresponding to the mushroom’s reproductive system, is an exceptional fossil.

The first mushrooms probably lacked a carpophore.