# 2025 in paleobotany

This paleobotany list records new fossil plant taxa that were to be described during the year 2025, as well as notes other significant paleobotany discoveries and events which occurred during 2025.

## Algae
### Chlorophytes

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Archaeodunaliella | Gen. et sp. nov | | Zhu et al. | Carboniferous–Permian (Kasimovian–Asselian) | Fengcheng Formation | China | | A member of the family Dunaliellaceae. The type species is A. junggarensis. | |
| Morelletpora sinica | Sp. nov | Valid | Schlagintweit, Xu & Zhang | Late Cretaceous (Campanian) | Yigeziya Formation | China | | A member of Dasycladales belonging to the family Triploporellaceae. | |

### Phycological research

* A study on the reproduction of Eugonophyllum, based on fossils from the Carboniferous (Gzhelian) Maping Formation (Guizhou, China), is published by Wang et al. (2025).

## Non-vascular plants
### Marchantiophyta

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes |
| Frullania chiapasensis | Sp. nov | Valid | Mamontov, Feldberg, Schäfer-Verwimp & Gradstein in Feldberg et al. | Miocene | Mexican amber | Mexico | A liverwort, a species of Frullania. |
| Hyponychium | Gen. et sp. nov | | Paulsen et al. | Eocene | Anglesea amber | Australia | A liverwort belonging to the group Jungermanniales. The type species is H. pentadactylum. |
| Radula panduriformis | Sp. nov | | Paulsen et al. | Eocene | Anglesea amber | Australia | A liverwort, a species of Radula. |
| Thysananthus patrickmuelleri | Sp. nov | Valid | Feldberg, Gradstein, Schäfer-Verwimp & Mamontov in Feldberg et al. | Miocene | Mexican amber | Mexico | A liverwort belonging to the group Porellales and the family Lejeuneeae. |

## Lycophytes

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Selaginella jorelisiae | Sp. nov | Valid | López-García, Schmidt & Regalado in López-García et al. | Miocene | Dominican amber | Dominican Republic | | A species of Selaginella. | |
| Zosterophyllum baoyangense | Sp. nov | | Huang & Xue in Huang et al. | Devonian (Pragian) | Mangshan Group | China | | | |

## Ferns and fern allies

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Coniopteris haifanggouensis | Sp. nov | | Li & Tian in Li et al. | Middle Jurassic | Haifanggou Formation | China | | A member of the family Dicksoniaceae. | |
| Krameropteris calophyllum | Sp. nov | | Li in Li & Meng | Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) | Kachin amber | Myanmar | | A member of the family Dennstaedtiaceae. | |

## Conifers
### Pinaceae

| Name | Novelty | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes |
| Pinus longlingensis | Sp. nov | Song & Wu in Song et al. | Pliocene | Mangbang Formation | China | A pine. |
| Pinus mangkangensis | Sp. nov | Yao & Su in Yao et al. | Eocene | Mangkang Basin | China | A pine. |
| Pinuxylon anatolica | Sp. nov | Akkemik & Mantzouka | Miocene | Hançili Formation | Turkey | A member of the family Pinaceae. |

### Podocarpaceae

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Metapodocarpoxylon brasiliense | Sp. nov | | Conceição et al. | | Missão Velha Formation | Brazil | | | |

## Gnetophyta

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Ephedra transversa | Sp. nov | | Song & Wu in Li et al. | Early Cretaceous | Yixian Formation | China | | A species of Ephedra. | |

## Flowering plants
### Monocots
#### Monocot research

* Khan et al. (2025) describe fossil material of palms with one metaxylem vessel in each fibrovascular bundle from the Maastrichtian-Danian Deccan Intertrappean Beds (India), and interpret the studied fossils as Cocos-type palms belonging to the subfamily Arecoideae that likely grew in a tropical rainforest.
* Evidence from the study of phytoliths from the Giraffe locality (Northwest Territories, Canada), indicative of presence of palms close to the Arctic Circle over an extensive period of time during the Eocene (approximately 48 million years ago), is presented by Siver et al. (2025).

### Basal eudicots

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Palaeosinomenium indicum | Sp. nov | | Kumar, Manchester & Khan | Cretaceous-Paleocene (Maastrichtian-Danian) | Deccan Intertrappean Beds | India | | A member of the family Menispermaceae. Announced in late 2024, published fully in 2025. | |
| Proteaceaefolia | Gen. et sp. nov | | Carpenter & McLoughlin | Paleogene | | Chile | | A member of the family Proteaceae. The type species is P. araucoensis. | |

### Superasterids
#### Apiales

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Astropanax eogetem | Sp. nov | | Pan et al. | Miocene | | Ethiopia | | A species of Astropanax. | |

#### Icacinales

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Miquelia yenbaiensis | Sp. nov | | Hung, Huang & Li in Hung et al. | Miocene | Co Phuc Formation | Vietnam | | A species of Miquelia. | |

### Superrosids
#### Fabales

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Peltophorum xingjianii | Sp. nov | | Zhao, Wang & Huang in Zhao et al. | Miocene | Sanhaogou Formation | China | | A species of Peltophorum. | |
| Pueraria qinghaiensis | Sp. nov | | Cao & Xie in Cao et al. | Miocene | Youshashan Formation | China | | A species of Pueraria. | |

#### Sapindales

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Acer pretataricum | Sp. nov | | Xiao & Wang in Dong et al. | Miocene | Hannuoba Formation | China | | A maple. | |

#### Superrosid research

* Hazra & Khan (2025) report the discovery of a diverse assemblage of legume fruits and leaflet remains from the Rajdanda Formation (India), interpreted as evidence of the presence of a warm and humid tropical environment during the Pliocene.
* A study on the anatomy of wood of extant members of the genus Ficus and fossil wood with affinities to Ficus, and on its implications for determination of the organs preserved as fossil wood and their habits, is published by Monje Dussán, Pederneiras & Angyalossy (2025).

### Other angiosperms

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes | Images |
| Menispermites temlyanensis | Sp. nov | | Zolina, Golovneva & Grabovskiy | Late Cretaceous–Paleocene (Maastrichtian–Danian) | Tanyurer Formation | Russia ( Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) | | A flowering plant with similarities to members of the genus Menispermum. | |

### General angiosperm research

* A study on the timing of the evolution of the flowering plants is published by Ma et al. (2025), who recover the crown group of the flowering plants as likely originating in the Triassic.
* Doughty et al. (2025) use a mechanistic model to study the relationship between seed size of flowering plants, their light environment and the size of animals in their environment, and predict a rapid increase of seed size during the Paleocene that eventually plateaued or declined, likely as a result of the appearance of large herbivores that opened the understory, reducing the competitive advantage of plants with large seeds.

## Other plants

| Name | Novelty | Status | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Notes |
| Fengweioxylon | Gen. et sp. nov | Valid | Jiang et al. | Jurassic | Tiaojishan Formation | China | Fossil wood of a corystosperm. The type species is F. sinense. |
| Neuromariopteris | Gen. et sp. nov | | Šimůnek & Haldovský | Carboniferous (Bashkirian) | Kladno-Rakovník Basin | Czech Republic | A member of Callistophytales. The type species is N. scandens. |
| Palaeopteridium andrenelii | Sp. nov | | Correia & Góis-Marques | Carboniferous (Moscovian) | | Portugal | A progymnosperm belonging to the group Noeggerathiales. |
| Shanxioxylon yangquanense | Sp. nov | | Wang & Wan in Wang et al. | Carboniferous (Kasimovian) | Benxi Formation | China | A cordaitalean. |
| Yuzhoua | Gen. et sp. nov | | Wang, Lei & Fu | Permian (Asselian) | Lower Shihhotse Formation | China | A plant of uncertain affinities, with similarities to the flowering plants. The type species is Y. juvenilis. |

### Other plant research

* Partial leaf representing the first record of a fossil Cycas from Australia is described from the Miocene Stuarts Creek site by Greenwood, Conran & West (2025).

## Palynology

| Name | Novelty | Authors | Age | Unit | Location | Synonymized taxa | Notes |
| Sparganiaceaepollenites intertrappeansis | Nom. nov | DeBenedetti et al. | Late Cretaceous-Paleocene (Maastrichtian-Danian) | Mandla Formation | India | Sparganiaceaepollenites annulatus Thakre et al. 2024 (junior homonym of S. annulatus De Benedetti, 2023). | Fossil pollen; a replacement name for Sparganiaceaepollenites reticulatus Samant et al. (2022). |
| Sparganiaceaepollenites oczkowicensis | Nom. nov | DeBenedetti et al. | Miocene | | Poland | | Fossil pollen; a replacement name for Sparganiaceaepollenites microreticulatus Grabowska & Ważyńska (2009). |
| Stigmatocystia | Gen. et sp. nov | Strother et al. | Ordovician (Hirnantian) | Sarah Formation | Saudi Arabia | | Zygospores of a member of the family Zygnemataceae. The type species is S. divericata. |
| Zygnema paleopawneanum | Sp. nov | Strother et al. | Ordovician (Hirnantian) | Sarah Formation | Saudi Arabia | | Zygospores of a member of the genus Zygnema. |

### Palynological research

* Nhamutole et al. (2025) study the composition of palynological assemblages from the Permian (Lopingian) strata of the Maniamba Basin (Mozambique), reporting evidence of the presence of plants indicative of lowland fluvial setting.
* Evidence from the study of palynofloral assemblages from the Germig Section (Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; Tibet, China), interpreted as indicative of a shift from floras dominated by seed ferns and conifers to floras dominated by cheirolepids during the Triassic-Jurassic transition, is presented by Li et al. (2025).
* A study on palynofloral assemblages from the Las Loras UNESCO Global Geopark (Spain), providing evidence of gradual shift from conifer-dominated floras to ones with increased presence of flowering plants through the Albian–Cenomanian, is published by Rodríguez-Barreiro et al. (2025).
* Evidence from the study of palynomorph and palynofacies from the Bahariya Formation (Egypt), interpreted as indicative of warm and humid climate during the early-middle Cenomanian with a short episode of semi-arid to arid conditions during the late early Cenomanian, is presented by Abdelhalim et al. (2025).
* Rull (2025) revises purported fossil pollen records of Pelliciera found outside the Neotropics, and argues that only a subset of Cenozoic pollen records from tropical West Africa can be confirmed as likely fossils of members of Pelliciera.
* Evidence from the study of fossil pollen from the Dingqinghu Formation (China), indicative of presence of a mixed deciduous and coniferous forest in the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during the Oligocene-Miocene transition, is presented by Xie et al. (2025).

## General research

* Evidence of changes of composition of gigantopterid-dominated rainforests known from the Longtan Formation (China) during the Lopingian is presented by Shu et al. (2025), who also report evidence of the presence of climbing structures in Gigantonoclea.
* Evidence from the study of fossil material from the South Taodonggou Section in the Turpan-Hami Basin (China), interpreted as indicative of presence of a refugium of land vegetation that preserved the stability of food chains during the Permian–Triassic extinction event and might have been one of the source regions for the diversification of terrestrial life in the aftermath of the extinction event, is presented by Peng et al. (2025).
* Evidence of a staggered recovery of plant communities from the Sydney Basin (Australia) in the aftermath of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, indicative of the presence of a succession gymnosperm-dominated and lycophyte-dominated plant communities lasting until the early Middle Triassic, is presented by Amores et al. (2025).
* Evidence of the presence of a plant community dominated by ferns belonging to the family Osmundaceae, similar to extant plant communities such as those from swamp settings from the Parana Forest in northeastern Argentina, is reported from the Jurassic La Matilde Formation (Argentina) by García Massini et al. (2025).
* Silva et al. (2025) study the taphonomy of exceptionally preserved plant remains from the Upper Cretaceous Santa Marta Formation (Antarctica).
* Evidence from the study of phytoliths from the Lunpola Basin of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, interpreted as indicative of presence mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forest during the late Oligocene–Early Miocene, is presented by Zhang et al. (2025).
* A study on the timing of the uplift of the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes, based on composition of fossil plant communities from the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (China), is published by Lai et al. (2025).
* A study on ancient DNA from sediment cores from lakes in Alaska and Siberia, providing evidence of plant extinctions associated with environmental changes during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, is published by Courtin et al. (2025).
* El-Saadawi et al. (2025) present an annotated catalog of plant macrofossil remains from Egypt, including fossils ranging from Devonian to Quaternary.