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Updated: May 22, 2026

Reconstructing Terrestrial Paleoclimate and Paleoecology with Fossil Leaves Using Digital Leaf Physiognomy and Leaf Mass Per Area
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Reconstructing Terrestrial Paleoclimate and Paleoecology with Fossil Leaves Using Digital Leaf Physiognomy and Leaf Mass Per Area

Published on: October 25, 2024

Developmentally based scaling of leaf venation architecture explains global ecological patterns.

Lawren Sack1, Christine Scoffoni, Athena D McKown

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of California Los Angeles, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. lawrensack@ucla.edu

Nature Communications
|May 17, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Larger leaves have thicker major veins but less vein length per area. These leaf venation scaling relationships help estimate leaf size from fragments and explain plant adaptations.

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