Abstract
The study and interpretation of plant cuticles may lead to the establishment of three important (taxonomic, biochemical, physiological) links with the past in the plant world; (1) Cuticles reflect characteristic patterns of epidermal cell organization; on the basis of cuticle analysis natural plant genera and families can be established as a necessary taxonomic background for recognizing past episodes of biodiversity change. (2) Cuticles have a high fossilization potential, due to the presence of resistant biopolymers in the cuticular matrix; chemical analysis of fossil and present-day cuticles can help to clarify interrelationship between extant biomass, kerogen and fossil fuels (3) Cuticles bear the plant’s stomata, essential for photosynthesis; stomatal frequencies are dependent on ambient CO2 concentration, so that calculation of stomatal indices has the potential of determining palaeoatmospheric CO2-levels with the time-scale of the last 10 million years.
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