Brains MatterMay 6
Galaxies of life are collecting dust in museums – digitizing microscope slides can uncover billions of fossils for natural history https://theconversation.com/galaxies-of-life-are-collecting-dust-in-museums-digitizing-microscope-slides-can-uncover-billions-of-fossils-for-natural-history-281304 #paleobotany #botany #science #STEM
Galaxies of life are collecting dust in museums – digitizing microscope slides can uncover billions of fossils for natural history

Pollen, algae, insects, radiolarians – each unique microfossil holds clues to how Earth has changed over millions of years. Combining AI with digital scanners helps researchers piece it all together.

The Conversation
Show threadAnnals of BotanyFeb 24

🔬 Takeaway: The evolution of vascular systems in early seed plants was far more complex than previously thought, involving multiple adaptive modifications and transitional stages. Ancient plant evolution was anything but simple. 🌱 (9/9)

👉https://doi.org/qr8r

#Paleobotany #PlantEvolution #FossilPlants #Botany

Shoot apical meristem and initial vascular development of a late Palaeozoic spermatophyte (order Medullosales)

AbstractBackground and Aims. The medullosans are ancient spermatophytes (order Medullosales) with an unusual stem anatomy and have been studied extensively

OUP Academic
Annals of BotanyFeb 24

🌿Check the newly published article “Shoot apical meristem and initial vascular development of a late Palaeozoic spermatophyte (order Medullosales)” in @AnnBot by Lydéric Portailler & Ludwig Luthardt. (1/9)

👉https://doi.org/qr8r

#Paleobotany #PlantEvolution #FossilPlants #Botany

SPAAM-communityFeb 16
Ancient walnuts 🌰 tell a Silk Road story! Genome-wide data 🧬 from Tang Dynasty Xinjiang walnuts reveal a transitional genetic stage linking Central Asia and China in a new study published in Cell Reports.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116652
#MetagenomicsMonday #SPAAM #aDNA #ancientDNA #silkroad #paleobotany
Anthropology.netFeb 4
New synthesis shows Italians exploited olive trees for 6,000+ years and produced oil 4,000 years ago, far earlier than once thought. Evidence challenges colonial narratives. #Archaeology #AncientHistory #RomanItaly #Paleobotany #Archaeobotany https://www.anthropology.net/p/the-italian-olive-goes-back-further
The Italian Olive Goes Back Further Than Anyone Expected

New archaeological evidence shows exploitation of olive trees in Italy began 6,000 years ago, and oil production may have started 4,000 years ago

Anthropology.net
The Inquisitive BiologistFeb 1

This week's #NewBooks at the library: I adopted damaged copies of The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Plants (look out for a review in the near future) and David Attenborough's Life Trilogy Boxset.

#Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon #Paleobotany #Palaeobotany #Plants #Botany #NaturalHistory @bookstodon @princetonupress

grimmigesJan 19

So much for strict #OpenData policies. Paper published in 2021 in New Phytologist, data matrix: "... is accessible to readers in #Morphobank, project # 3917. We have enabled anonymous login."

https://www.morphobank.org/myprojects/3917/overview

Anonymous login works (first pic), "Project disc usage: 0 bytes". Which happens to be exactly the number of linked matrices under the project (2nd pic)

Deleted the data after review? Avoid anyone else can (mis)use it.

#paleobotany #phylogeny #FightTheFog #transparency in #science

Show threadAnnals of BotanySep 25, 2025

🌦️But why did some groups spread and others disappear during the Neogene? The study points to possible links with changing monsoon climates, but the full story remains a mystery waiting to be uncovered. (6/6)

👉 https://doi.org/p6mt

#FossilPlants #Biogeography #TropicalForests #PlantEvolution #Paleobotany #AoBpapers

Persistence of Gondwanan woods in Myanmar through the Palaeogene

AbstractBackground and Aims. Many plant taxa of the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia have been proposed to have Gondwanan ancestors. One signif

OUP Academic
Annals of BotanySep 25, 2025

🎉 Good news! The paper ‘Persistence of Gondwanan woods in Myanmar through the Paleogene’ in @AnnBot by Nicolas Gentis and co-authors is now #free for 2 weeks 🧵(1/6)

👉 https://doi.org/p6mt

#FossilPlants #Biogeography #TropicalForests #PlantEvolution #Paleobotany #AoBpapers

Emma the Curious 🧐 has moved!Sep 23, 2025

Between 400 to 700 years ago, in mountains near a community in Oaxaca, people in the Nejapan Sierra Sur collected over a hundred different species of seeds. They put them in a bin close to where they retreated when colonial invaders - Zapotecs, Aztecs, later, the Spaniards - came sweeping through the area. This ancient seed bank was their way of ensuring the survival of their complex cuisine.

#ethnobotany #mesoamerica #paleobotany #archaeology

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/124023175.cms

‘An ancient seed bank captures people’s efforts to save plants during invasions’ - The Times of India

World News: Shanti Morell-Hart is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brown University. Speaking with Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke , she discusses how anci.

The Times of India