Plants at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary

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Abstract
Environmental selection determines to a large extent the morphology and anatomy of individual plants, and the composition and structure of vegetation. The intimate relation between vascular land plants, climate and substrate produces an abundant fossil record with a strong inherent signal reflecting, in particular, air temperatures, precipitation and evaporation, light régime and seasonality. Studies of palynomorphs, cuticles and plant megafossils in detailed sedimentological and stratigraphic context across the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary in North America, suggest sudden and traumatic vegetational disturbance, profound and long-lasting climatic change, and survivorship patterns that are palaeogeographically heterogeneous and possibly related to the ability of taxa to enter dormancy. Some of these changes are reflected in palaeosols. Major vegetational changes are also apparent in Europe, and Asia, although the precise timing of these events is less clear. The record, as presently interpreted, is one of ecological catastrophe, some selective extinction of broad-leaved evergreen species, and long-term vegetational restructing, expressed most strongly at middle and lower latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.