The palaeobotanical heritage of Ukraine and its endangered status following the Russian military invasion

Abstract

Ukraine has a rich Proterozoic to Quaternary fossil record of photosynthetic microbes and plants. Particularly rich and scientifically important fossils of early multicellular organisms have been documented from the Ediacaran, early land plants from the Silurian–Devonian, coal-forming floras from the Carboniferous, typical post-extinction recovery vegetation and coal swamp forests from the Triassic and Jurassic, and well-preserved angiosperms and conifers from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. These fossil floras help elucidate the temporal changes in the vegetation at the junction of Europe, Asia and the Tethyan microcontinental terranes and highlight biogeographic linkages between various floral provinces through deep time. The rich and variably preserved floras offer great scope for further taxonomic, palaeoecological, palaeoclimatic and biogeographic research. Extensive fossil collections are stored in several major institutional repositories scattered across Ukraine. Some of these institutions have now been occupied by Russian forces, and others have been damaged and remain under threat, risking potential loss for future research. The impact of the war on Ukrainian museums and scientific collections has implications for how fossil specimens are stored and what procedures are enacted to preserve collections in other parts of the world in the event of war, civil disturbance, or natural disasters.