Height does not impair the hydraulic system of the tallest tropical Dipterocarp trees www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... - good to see our #MetabolicScalingTheory predictions we made for scaling of hydraulic resistance and xylem anatomy hold up in some of the tallest trees #allometry #megabiota 🧪🌾🌐

Height does not impair the hydraulic system of the tallest tropical Dipterocarp trees

Half of the aboveground biomass in forests is stored in a disproportionately small number of very tall trees. These giants are predicted to be more vulnerable to drought-induced damage because height ...

science.org

Hollaar, T.P., Kent, M.S., Lomax, B.H. et al. Continental-scale fern savannah wildfires during end-Triassic greenhouse warming. Nat. Geosci. (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Continental-scale fern savannah wildfires during end-Triassic greenhouse warming - Nature Geoscience

Fern savannahs spread rapidly following the collapse of the forest ecosystem during the end-Triassic mass extinction, setting the conditions for widespread wildfires, according to an analysis of the d...

doi.org

Our work on pattern formation in fossil and extant liverworts is out! @dev-journal.bsky.social Check it out if you are interested in fossils, evo-devo, and how mathematical modeling can help us understand the evolution of developmental processes! 🌿🧪 Thread ⬇️

Lateral inhibition governs ancestral cellular patterning in fossil and extant liverworts

Highlighted Article: Comparative and mathematical analyses reveal that oil body cell patterning in fossil and extant liverworts is consistent with a local activation-lateral inhibition mechanism, poin...

journals.biologists.com

Learn about the UV response of the earliest land plants #evolution of the phenylpropanoid pathway—& its divergence in zygnematophyte #algae at Cece's @caeciliafkunz.bsky.social poster 100-042 #PlantBio2026 @aspbofficial.bsky.social & checkout @currentbiology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Here's a taster from my segment on Monday's episode of The Sky at Night, now available on BBC iPlayer:

🌿🪨 #PaleoBotanyWeek 🦕 Comparative rhizotaxy of fossil and living isoetalean rhizomorphs reveals development through rootlet intercalation within a triangular lattice by Wyman and co-authors. #freeaccess article 👉 doi.org/q76q @sandyheth.bsky.social #Paleobotany #PlantEvolution #Botany

🕸️ DARWIN REVIEW 🕸️ Robil & Scarpella show that vein patterns are more diverse than commonly thought, and identification of vein precursor cells is arbitrary and inconsistent across species, thus challenging current understanding of vein patterns 🌿 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪

When did liverwort oil body cells originate? Here, Susan and I provide quantitative evidence that they emerged by at least the Middle Devonian (~390 Ma!), shedding light on a key anti-herbivory defense mechanism of early land plants!

New Phytologist@newphyt.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Homology of the dark cells of Paleozoic liverworts with the specialized oil body cells of modern liverworts (Marchantiophyta) Tremblay and Mercadal nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/BWYYSE...

🌿Brand new research out in Science today about angiosperm reproductive strategies and how they preceded the K-Pg mass extinction, led by UCMP PhD student, Jaemin Lee, and curator, Cindy Looy!🌿 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Diversification of angiosperm reproductive strategies predated the end-Cretaceous extinction

Angiosperm reproductive evolution is traditionally linked to the end-Cretaceous biotic crisis and subsequent ecological restructuring. Here, we report diverse and unexpectedly large diaspores (dispers...

science.org

🔥 Published today, and just in time for summer conferences, here are your guidelines for presenting badly www.nature.com/articles/s41... rdcu.be/fqa92

Diversification of angiosperm reproductive strategies predated the end-Cretaceous extinction | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Diversification of angiosperm reproductive strategies predated the end-Cretaceous extinction

Angiosperm reproductive evolution is traditionally linked to the end-Cretaceous biotic crisis and subsequent ecological restructuring. Here, we report diverse and unexpectedly large diaspores (dispers...

science.org

Because the Rhynie chert plants include plants with xylem but without true phloem, this suggests that xylem and phloem did not have a common origin within the land plants, but rather both tissues evolved gradually and independently, occurring in their modern form in at different times. 10.

This suggests that in the Rhynie chert plants, there was a tissue specialised in sugar conduction, but was distinct, and likely not as specialised and effective, as the phloem of extant vascular plants. 9/

But we found that the FCCs of Asteroxylon did have (submicron!) sieve pores, which in extant plants is involved in the movement of sugars through the phloem, suggesting this tissue did have a sugar conduction specialisation. This is the earliest example of sieve pores in the fossil record. 8/

These FCCs had some, but not all, of the features of phloem of extant vascular plants. The Rhynie chert plants didn't have a distinction between FCCs and cortical cells, or a boundary between these tissues, and the FCCs are very large in diameter compared to phloem cells. 7/

The Rhynie chert plants had a tissue called FCCs (food conducting cells) around the central strand of xylem (or water conducting cells), in the position that phloem is in extant plants. 6/

I also compared these plants with the extant lycophytes, the earliest diverging group of living vascular plants, and the group to which one of the Rhynie chert species (Asteroxylon mackiei) belongs. Illustration by @palaeojules.bsky.social 5/

I imaged the Rhynie chert plants using confocal laser scanning microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, two very high resolution imaging techniques that can be used to identify sub-micron features in these fossil plants. 4/

The plant species preserved here include non-vascular plants that are close relatives of vascular plants, and plants that belong in modern groups, so they can be used to investigate the early evolution of major traits of vascular plants like phloem. 3/

To understand these sort of fundamental questions in plant evolution, we can examine the exceptionally preserved plants of the Rhynie chert, a 407 million year old fossil deposit where some of the earliest land plants are preserved through the activity of a hot spring. Art by Victor Leshyk. 2/

Phloem is the highly specialised sugar conducting tissue found in all living vascular plants, and it is today always occurs with xylem, the specialised water conducting tissue. Both of these tissues enabled plants to become larger and more complex, but how did these tissues evolve? 1/

Congratulation @transitionalform.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social for publishing the next chapter of your thesis @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Great work showing that the two fundamental vascular tissues - xylem and phloem evolved asynchronously. Read Laura's thread for more details 👇👇

Laura Cooper@transitionalform.bsky.social · last mo.

Our paper on the origin and evolution of phloem, a big part of my PhD work, is out in Current Biology! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our paper on the origin and evolution of phloem, a big part of my PhD work, is out in Current Biology! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣 It's out ! ✨32✨ great #paleobotany papers in this special issue of @annbot.bsky.social on fossil #plants 🌿⛏️ edited by Mihai Tomescu, @sandyheth.bsky.social, Brian Atkinson & myself. Thank you to all the authors & all the reviewers for their contributions! 📄 academic.oup.com/aob/issue

With The Story of Birds now out in the UK, I'm super excited to launch it here in my home of Edinburgh! In one of the most beautiful, charming bookshops in the world: Toppings! Join us on June 23, 7pm. Tickets👇 www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinb...

Steve Brusatte for The Story of Birds at Pilrig St. Paul's / LARCH

toppingbooks.co.uk

This episode is now available on BBC Sounds www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

In Our Time - The Evolution of Trees - BBC Sounds

How trees first arose from small plants and changed the world, and why new trees emerge.

bbc.co.uk

Dr Susannah Lydon@susieoftraken.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Palaeobotany on the radio at 9am! @christophermberry.bsky.social and Jenny McElwain talking about the Evolution of Forests on In Our Time on Radio 4. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand... #Paleobotany

The paper is not online yet but it's too pretty not to show for this #FossilFriday: a new species of Keraphyton from the Late Devonian of Australia, part of the work of @toinechampreux.bsky.social. Keraphyton is an iridopteridale, an extinct group related to ferns & horsetails. #paleobotany 🌿⛏️

Our latest review on the evolution of molecular networks involved in the development of plant conducting tissues is now out in @jxbotany.bsky.social @ibmcp.bsky.social Check it out here: academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-...

Happy to announce that I have started my own research group at the MPIPZ and that I am looking for a postdoc who would like to investigate Marchantia prothallus development with me! Please spread the word and/or apply if interested :)

Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research@mpipz.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Looking for a #postdoc? 📣We are #hiring📣 Join the Wallner Group @mpipz.bsky.social to work on tissue patterning, polarity & body axes formation with the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha.🌿 Apply now! #plantsci 👉https://jobs.mpipz.mpg.de/jobposting/54b1ba6d403b8a106f2595c1ef1171f8d729bb720?ref=homepage

Huge congratulations to Beverley Glover & Uta Paszkowski on being elected Fellows of the @royalsociety.org - a wonderful recognition of their significant contributions to plant sciences! 🎉 Read more: tinyurl.com/3vetucr4 @beverleycubg.bsky.social @paszkowskilab.bsky.social 🧪