The Eco-Plant Model and Its Implication on Mesozoic Dispersed Sporomorphs for Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, and Gymnosperms

The ecogroup classification based on the growth-form of plants (Eco-Plant model) is widely used for extant, Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, for most Mesozoic dispersed sporomorphs, the application of the Eco-Plant model is limited because either their assignment to a specific ecogroup remains uncertain or the botanical affinities to plant taxa are unclear. By comparing the unique outline and structure/sculpture of the wall of dispersed sporomorph to the sporomorph wall of modern plants and fossil plants, 861 dispersed Mesozoic sporomorph genera of Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, and Gymnosperms are reviewed. Finally, 474 of them can be linked to their closest parent plants and Eco-Plant model at family or order level. Based on the demands of the parent plants to different humidity conditions, the Eco-Plant model separates between hydrophytes, hygrophytes, mesophytes, xerophytes, and euryphytes. Additionally, due to different temperature demands a separation in megathermic, mesothermic, microthermic, and eurythermic plants is possible. In the Mesozoic, both spore-producing and pollen-producing plants are adapted to different kinds of humidity. The concept to use the spore/pollen ratio to reflect the hygrophytes/xerophytes ratio is therefore questionable. The presented ecogroups for dispersed Mesozoic sporomorphs now allow identifying at least relative plant, paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate changes in Mesozoic sedimentary records.