Conifer diversity in the Kungurian of Europe—Evidence from dwarf-shoot morphology

A major global change, the transition from an icehouse to a greenhouse world, took place during the Permian. In the equatorial Euramerican floral realm this resulted in stepwise changes from sub-humid climates in the early Cisuralian to semi-arid/arid climate by the late Cisuralian. During the same time interval we see a change from spore plant-dominated lowland floras, to increasingly drought-tolerant floras dominated by conifers and other seed...