Welcome to papers from the Second International Meeting of Agora Paleobotanica

This special issue of Historical Biology includes research papers from the Second International Congress of Agora Paleobotanica. This event was entitled ‘A Congress in the Countryside’ and was held at the Interpretation Center of Rock Art of Ariño (Teruel Province), Spain, during 9–13 July 2013 (Figure 1), thanks to the support provided by José Royo Lasarte and the mayor of Ariño, Joaquin Noé Serrano. This was the first time this congress was held in Spain and was organised by the Group of Iberian Palaeobotany (http://www.grupopaleobotanicaiberica.es). Agora Paleobotanica, formerly known as the Francophone Association of Paleobotany, is an international forum for discussions on paleobotanical, palynological and related research, and is composed mainly of representatives from south-western Europe. This international congress is a platform to support and encourage European paleobotany and especially young researchers. In addition, as the name of the event indicates, emphasis was put on the field trips. Since Teruel Province has such a rich diversity of Cretaceous (Albian–Cenomanian) and Miocene floras, several field trips were combined with scientific sessions, many of them, directly held on the terrain. Teruel Province is located between the Iberian Range and the Coastal Catalonian Range in north-eastern Spain. On the first day of the meeting (9 July 2013), an excursion was made to the Plou fossil locality (late Albian–middle Cenomanian, Villanueva-Amadoz 2009; Sender et al. 2010; Villanueva-Amadoz et al. 2011). This fossil site is characterised by the appearance of impressions of angiosperm leaves belonging to Ploufolia cerciformis and Klitzschophyllites choffatti (Gomez et al. 2009; Sender et al. 2010, among others). On the second day (10 July 2013), four welldocumented fossil sites were visited. The first of them corresponds to the road of Ariño fossil site (Albian, Villanueva-Amadoz 2009). At this locality, participants observed complete pinnatifid leaves of Sapindopsis magnifolia and pinnae of Ptilozamites integrifolia (Sender 2013). Subsequently, participants visited the Cabezo de las Eras (Utrillas locality) fossil site (mid–late Albian, Villanueva-Amadoz 2009) where Frenelopsis and Eretmophyllum were identified (Sender 2013). The third and fourth stops of this second day of excursions corresponded to the Estercuel and Castellote localities. At the Cabezo del Refollo (Estercuel locality) fossil site (late Albian, Villanueva-Amadoz et al. 2011; Sender et al. 2012), a large plant diversity has been reported including Ploufolia, Klitzschophyllites, Pagiophyllum, Onychiopsis, Desmiphyllum and Isoetites (Sender et al. 2012; VillanuevaAmadoz et al. 2014), while at the Castellote fossil site (late Albian, Sender 2013), it is possible to observe mainly angiosperm leaves of ‘Populus’ potomacensis and Jixia (Sender 2013). On the third day (12 July 2013), the activity was first focused on the Miocene flora of Rubielos de Mora (see Roiron et al. 1999), and afterwards on the Fuente del Vaso (Utrillas locality) fossil site (latest Albian, VillanuevaAmadoz 2009; Villanueva-Amadoz et al. 2011). This last fossil assemblage is characterised by the presence of P. cerciformis and Sectilopteris psilotoides (Sender 2013). Complete field trip guides are published in CascalesMiñana et al. (2013) where more complete details can be found. This second Congress had 35 participants (Figure 2) who presented 40 talks and posters (11 July 2013). Although scientific topics covered the major periods of plant life from the Silurian to the present day, special emphasis was given to Cretaceous paleobotany and the appearance of early angiosperms in the fossil record. Uxue Villanueva-Amadoz (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) and Luis M. Sender (University of Zaragoza) provided an introduction to the congress with an overview of recent discoveries of micro and macroforal remains, respectively, from the Early Cretaceous terrains of Teruel Province. These discoveries had been demonstrated in the