Faculty
Hermann Pfefferkorn
Ben LePage

The research group working with fossil plants at Penn pursues paleoclimatic and paleoecologic questions. Our research approach is multi-disciplinary with data synthesis from the biological, geological, and ecological areas. Such an approach allows us to consider and address evolutionary, taxonomic, and biostratigraphic problems at the global scale. The geologic ages that we are most concerned with at this time are the Late Paleozoic and Tertiary, with most of the work being conducted using macrofossils.

Current projects include: studies of the impact of the Carboniferous ice age on flora in the tropics and subtropics (Hermann Pfefferkorn) based on fossil localities in North America, Peru, and Europe and an understanding of Eocene age forests that grew above the Arctic Circle in the Canadian high Arctic during the last warm interval on Earth (Ben LePage).

The last two theses are:

Walter L. Cressler III (Ph.D., December 1999), Site-analysis and floristics of the Late Devonian Red Hill Locality, Pennsylvania, an Archaeopteris-dominated plant community and early tetrapod site.
(publications in preparation)

Beatrice L. Dower (M.S., December 1999), Sphenopsids from the late Early Carboniferous of Paracas (Peru): Implications for Sphenopsid evolution in Gondwana. (publication in preparation)