Quantitative patterns of vegetative versus reproductive fossil preservation in Permian palaeoflorae: a meta-analysis and network approach

Abstract Palaeobotany can provide insights into the preservation patterns of different plant organs in the fossil record and how diversity was represented across various geographic scales in the Permian palaeoflora. These insights are important for interpreting palaeodiversity and palaeoenvironmental conditions more integratively. Reproductive and vegetative organs may be preserved in systematically different proportions, potentially biasing our understanding of past plant communities and leading to over- or underestimation of diversity depending on the fossils available in different regions, climates, or time intervals. We thus investigate whether vegetative or reproductive elements reported in 37 studies spanning 1945 to 2024 are more abundant in the Permian fossil record and how different geographic scales influence the diversity of these elements. Networks, combined with meta-analyses, were employed to understand the heterogeneity of fossil-taxa composition and certain biogeographic aspects. Our results revealed a higher proportion of vegetative than reproductive parts, with the type of anatomical fragment separating distinct geographic regions at different scales. No evidence of publication bias was detected. Continental-scale analyses favoured vegetative parts, whereas hemisphere-scale patterns favoured reproductive parts. Networks indicated Leiotriletes as a connector taxon and Pecopteris as widely distributed. Antarctica showed the highest palaeobotanical potential, with the greatest diversity of preserved parts. Leaves appeared to increase the taxonomic precision of the recorded fossil-taxa. Arborescent plants may have dominated the physiognomy of milder climates during different Permian epochs. The Late Permian does not appear to have undergone abrupt changes in its palaeofloristic physiognomy when fossil-taxa are considered at the genus level.