How can you reconstruct the vegetation of deep time? One professor has turned to canvas and paint.
Tag - palaeobotany
Hugh Dickinson
What does chlorophyll leave behind after a billion years?
Scientists have identified one of the earliest multicellular algae. Their new method could help unlock much more information from Precambrian fossils.
Alun Salt
Newly discovered fossils illuminate a family’s 64 million year development
The fossils highlight the importance of West Gondwana in the evolution of Cunoniaceae.
Fi Gennu
What were the landscapes of the earliest humans like?
Evidence from a core at Olduvai gorge reveals some of the features of early Homo habilis habitat.
When did the first flowers open?
Finding out when the earliest ancestor of the flowering plants evolved has been difficult. Estimates have been wildly different, depending on the method you use.
Early Palaeocene fossil flowers of Patagonia
Sixty-four million years ago, this elaborate flower grew in Patagonia, Argentina. The new species described by Jud et al. is named Lacinipetalum spectabilis Jud, Gandolfo, Iglesias & Wilf, gen. et. sp. nov. It was...
botanyone
Botany at Oxford University is not 400 years old!
The first – and so far only – example of a root fossilized during active growth, which has preserved the cellular organization of the meristem
Nigel Chaffey
Timeless inner beauty…
This study of the fossilised stem of a royal fern in Lahar deposits from Korsaröd in Scania includes cellular details that are ‘exquisitely preserved’.
CSI Evidential Botanicals, Episode 3: CSI Raptors
Going back almost as far you can with higher plants, we now have a remarkable use of plant-derived exudates that represents the phytopalaentological equivalent of looking for a needle in haystack. But one which has –...
Rocks versus Clocks
What happened 670 million years ago? Can’t remember? Doesn’t matter, that’s why we have palaeobotanists. Palaeobotanists that is whose science it seems has been much under-appreciated amidst the high expectations, hope...
