Paleo News
Select articles & updates about Paleobotany, Plant Evolution, & Geologic History
Dinosaurs thrived after ice, not fire, says a new study of ancient volcanism (Phys.org 28Oct2024)
└Kent et al. (2024) Correlation of sub-centennial-scale pulses of initial Central Atlantic Magmatic Province lavas and the end-Triassic extinctions
Giant meteorite impact 3.26 billion years ago may have aided early life (Phys.org 21Oct2024)
└Drabon et al. (2024) Effect of a giant meteorite impact on Paleoarchean surface environments and life
Evolution in real time: Scientists predict—and witness—evolution in a 30-year marine snail experiment (Phys.org 11Oct2024)
└Castillo et al. (2024) Predicting rapid adaptation in time from adaptation in space: A 30-year field experiment in marine snails
Five-mile asteroid impact crater below Atlantic captured in 'exquisite' detail by seismic data (Phys.org 3Oct2024)
└Nicholson et al. (2024) 3D anatomy of the Cretaceous–Paleogene age Nadir Crater
New seed fossil sheds light on wind dispersal in plants (Phys.org 8Oct 2024)
└Wang et al. (2024) Alasemenia, the earliest ovule with three wings and without cupule
Explaining dramatic planetwide changes after world's last 'Snowball Earth' event (Phys.org 19Sep2024)
└Thomas & Catlings (2024) Three-stage formation of cap carbonates after Marinoan snowball glaciation consistent with depositional timescales and geochemistry
Fossil site in Massachusetts reveals 320-million-year-old ecosystem (Phys.org 19Sep2024)
└Knecht et al. (2024) Early Pennsylvanian Lagerstätte reveals a diverse ecosystem on a subhumid, alluvial fan
Earth's greatest mass extinction 250 million years ago shows what happens when El Niño gets out of control (Phys.org 16Sep2024)
└Sun et al. (2024) Mega El Niño instigated the end-Permian mass extinction
Paleontologists discover fossil birds with teeth had seeds in their stomachs, indicating that they ate fruit (Phys.org 10Sep2024)
└ O'Connor et al. (2024) Direct evidence of frugivory in the Mesozoic bird Longipteryx contradicts morphological proxies for diet
How fast does evolution happen? (LiveScience 9Sep2024)
└Stroud et al. (2024) Fluctuating selection maintains distinct species phenotypes in an ecological community in the wild
Plant thermogenesis has played key role in attracting pollinating insects for at least 200 million years (Phys.org 6Sep2024)
└Peris et al. (2024) The impact of thermogenesis on the origin of insect pollination
Darwin's fear was unjustified: Study suggests fossil record gaps not a major issue (Phys.org 26Aug2024)
└Hohmann et al. (2024) Identification of the mode of evolution in incomplete carbonate successions
Oldest Rocks on Earth Challenge Theories of Early Life (Phys.org 9Aug2024)
Ancient pines could reveal the heat of thousands of past seasons (Phys.org 6Aug2024)
└Mil et al. (2024) Bristlecone Pine Maximum Latewood Density as a Superior Proxy for Millennium-Length Temperature Reconstructions
Greenland fossil discovery stuns scientists and confirms that center of ice sheet melted in recent past (Phys.org 5Aug2024)
└Bierman et al. (2024) Plant, insect, and fungi fossils under the center of Greenland’s ice sheet are evidence of ice-free times
Interaction with insects accelerates plant evolution (Phys.org 19June2024)
└└Dorey et al. (2024) Biotic interactions promote local adaptation to soil in plants
Evolutionary history shapes variation of wood density (Phys.org 13May2024)
└Li et al. (2024) Evolutionary history shapes variation of wood density of tree species across the world
Microevolution can predict how evolution works on much longer timescales (Phys.org, 10May2024)
└Holstad et al. (2024) Evolvability predicts macroevolution under fluctuating selection
Weak magnetic field may have supported diversification of life on Earth (Phys.org 1May2024; Smithsonian 15May2024)
└Huang et al. (2024) Near-collapse of the geomagnetic field may have contributed to atmospheric oxygenation and animal radiation in the Ediacaran Period
Seed ferns experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago, paleontologists find (Phys.org 16Apr 2024)
└Coiro et al. (2024) Parallel evolution of angiosperm-like venation in Peltaspermales: a reinvestigation of Furcula
No 'human era' in Earth's geological history, scientists say (Phys.org 22Mar2024)
Did the first cells evolve in soda lakes? (Phys.org 20Mar2024)
└Cohen et al. (2024) Natural soda lakes provide compatible conditions for RNA and membrane function that could have enabled the origin of life
Biologists use machine learning to classify fossils of extinct pollen (Phys.org 20Mar2024)
└Adaïmé et al. (2024) Deep learning approaches to the phylogenetic placement of extinct pollen morphotypes
Why did geologists reject the “Anthropocene” epoch? (Vox 7Mar2024)
390 million-year-old fossilized forest is the oldest ever discovered (Live Science 4Mar2024)
└Davies et al. (2024) Earth's earliest forest: fossilized trees and vegetation-induced sedimentary structures from the Middle Devonian (Eifelian) Hangman Sandstone Formation, Somerset and Devon, SW England
The Anthropocene is not an epoch − but the age of humans is most definitely underway (The Conversation 5Mar2024)
'Living fossil' tree frozen in time for 66 million years being planted in secret locations (LiveScience 28Feb2024)
Study shows orchid family emerged in northern hemisphere and thrived alongside dinosaurs for 20 million years (Phys.org 22Feb2024)
└Pérez-Escobar et al. (2024) The origin and speciation of orchids
What turned Earth into a giant snowball 700 million years ago? (Phys.org 8Feb 2024)
└Dutkiewicz et al. (2024) Duration of Sturtian “Snowball Earth” glaciation linked to exceptionally low mid-ocean ridge outgassing
What was it like when life first sprang forth on Earth? (Big Think 8Jan2024)
Bickner et al. (2023) Mongolitria: A new Early Cretaceous three‐valved seed from Northeast Asia
Rare tree fossils preserved with leaves unlike any plant known today (Live Science 2Feb2024)
└Gastaldo et al. (2024) Enigmatic fossil plants with three-dimensional, arborescent-growth architecture from the earliest Carboniferous of New Brunswick, Canada
What was it like when life first sprang forth on Earth? (Big Think 8Jan2024)
This plant fossil is really a baby turtle fossil (Phys.org 7Dec2023)
└Palma-Castro et al. (2023) An Early Cretaceous Sphenophyllum or a hatchling turtle?
3.42-billion-year-old fossil threads may be the oldest known archaea microbes (Science News 26Jul2021)
└Cavalazzi et al. (2021) Cellular remains in a ~3.42-billion-year-old subseafloor hydrothermal environment
Flowers may be more ancient than dinosaurs – but scientists can’t agree on when they evolved (The Conversation 9Apr2024)
└Silvestro et al. (2021) Fossil data support a pre-Cretaceous origin of flowering plants
Fossils show 66 million years of insects eating Kauri trees (Phys.org, 25Nov2020)
└ Donovan et al. (2020) Persistent biotic interactions of a Gondwanan conifer from Cretaceous Patagonia to modern Malesia.
Argentine fossils uncover history of celebrated conifer group (Phys.org, 18Jun2020)
└ Rosetto-Harris et al. (2020) Eocene Araucaria Sect. Eutacta from Patagonia and floristic turnover during the initial isolation of South America
D'Antonio et al. (2019) Land plant evolution decreased, rather than increased, weathering rates
The story of Wollemia (Paleoplant Blog, Jan 2009)