Plant diversity through geologic time

The Paleobiology Database (PBBD) is to a web-accessible database maintained at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Its Paleobotany Working Group, consists of a team of paleobotanists (see figure) who are adding data (mostly from the literature) on fossil plant assemblages. In the long run the entered data will allow us to better quantify changes in the diversity and composition of terrestrial floras across the whole history of life on land. By comparing results compiled from the literature with more detailed studies, we hope we will also reach a better understanding of the biases and limitations of the published fossil record.

Our first project, SWAMP (Species in Wet And Muddy Places), deals with the number of taxa within communities (alpha diversity) of wet floodplain floras through time.

	Paleobiology Database
	SWAMP Project