This theme aims at a better understanding of the evolution of Cenozoic ecosystems using a variety of approaches. Consisting of several projects evidence from phytoliths and macrofossils will be compared. Investigations in areas containing large numbers of so-called Cenxoic relicts (plants that went extinct in large parts of western Eurasia during and following the Pleistocene cold phases) will help to reconstruct possible scenarios for the development of Cenzoic ecosystems. Currently vertebrate palaeontological data seems to indicate the presence of open landscapes in the late Cenzoic of western Eurasia while palaeobotanical data indicate a more closed forest dominated vegetation. Phytoliths or "plant crystals" are typical of monocotyledons, that is grasses and plams among others, and are preserved in vertebrate sites, which are otherwise almost devoid of macroscopic plant remains. Macrofossils are preserved under different sedimentation conditions and reflect regional scale vegetation. Here phytoliths will be used to provide evidnece for the development of grassland-dominated ecosystesm in western Eurasia through the Cenozoic. Furthermore we will try to find explanations suitable to accommodate seemingly contradictive lines of evidence.
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