XVI International Botanical Congess

Plant fossils are generally considered to be the best terrestrial paleoclimate proxies in the Cenozoic and various methods exist to extract paleoclimate information from plant fossils. Based on the nearest living relative philosophy we have developed a number of approaches which allow quantitative estimations of various paleoclimate parameters for all types of fossil floras (i.e. leaves, fruits/seed, pollen/spores, wood). Using examples from the Quaternary and Tertiary the quality and limitations of the various approaches will be illustrated. A comparison will also be made with the leaf physiognomy approach. It turns out that approaches which are only based on the presence-absence of taxa can be used in the Quaternary and Tertiary and provide particularly robust results, when so-called probability thermospheres are calculated the climatic resolution can be up to 1-2 degrees Celsius for the temperature parameters, even in the Quaternary. Taphonomy proves to be a serious problem of leaf physiognomy approaches.