#fossil seed fern

[transparentfossil]

6.3" Fossil Seed Fern (Alethopteris) Plate - Pennsylvania

[geologyin-blog]

Amazing Neuropteris (seed fern) Fossil with Exceptional Preservation From Grundy County, Illinois. Age: Pennsylvanian (~300 m.y.a.).

Photo 📷 juarezfossil/IG

[just-a-turtleduck]

hello tumblr i'd like to introduce you to celery

celery is a pecopteris fossil from the devonian period. the largest and loveliest i've ever found. she'd been eroding away and i lovingly glued her back together, but parts of her are a worn away and indistinct. she was rescued (😊) from a construction site. i'm amazed at how large and beautiful and old she is.

[uk-fossils]

Alethopteris Fossil Leaf Fern – Carboniferous Coal Measures – Radstock, Somerset, UK – Authentic Plant Fossil

Authentic Alethopteris Fossil Leaf Fern – Carboniferous Coal Measures – Radstock, Somerset, UK

This listing features a beautifully preserved fossilised leaf of Alethopteris, a type of seed fern (Pteridospermatophyta) common in Carboniferous coal swamps. This specimen was excavated from the historic Coal Measures strata in Radstock, Somerset, and dates to the Late Carboniferous Period (Pennsylvanian Subsystem), approximately 310 million years ago.

Geological & Palaeobotanical Details:

Fossil Genus: Alethopteris

Family: Alethopteridaceae

Order: Medullosales

Class: Pteridospermatophyta (Seed Ferns)

Geological Age: Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian)

Formation: British Upper Coal Measures

Depositional Environment: Moist, equatorial deltaic swamp with fluctuating water levels – a habitat ideal for dense vegetation and coal formation

Location: Radstock Coalfield, Somerset, United Kingdom

Morphological Features:

Distinctive bipinnate fronds with symmetrical leaflets (pinnae)

Prominent midribs and lateral venation typical of seed ferns

Leaves believed to belong to seed-bearing plants, now extinct

Biozone (if assigned): Typically associated with Lenisulcata or Gastrioceras ammonoid zones regionally

Fossil Identification: Described and classified in the 19th century; remains a key taxon in palaeobotany due to its prevalence and role in coal formation

Specimen Notes:

Discovered by: UKGE team members Alister and Alison

Discovery Date: 06 March 2025

Preparation: Cleaned, stabilised, and prepped by Alison

Condition: Well-defined fossil on natural matrix, showing clear detail of fossilised leaf structure

Photography: Scale cube = 1cm. Photos show actual specimen – what you see is what you will receive

Authenticity: Comes with Certificate of Authenticity – all fossils sold by us are genuine and responsibly sourced

Why Choose Alethopteris?

Alethopteris is not only a stunning example of Carboniferous flora but also a tangible link to the lush tropical landscapes that once dominated Europe. Its role in forming the vast coal beds of the UK makes it both a beautiful and historically significant specimen for collectors, educators, or as a natural history display.

Secure a genuine piece of Earth’s botanical past today with this expertly sourced and prepared fossil fern.

[cjab-0201]

Here's a selection of other fossils I've found over my last few trips to this site:

Asterophyllites, a form genus for the foliage of Calamites.

Fronds of Neuropteris.

A charcuterie board of Macroneuropteris and Pecopteris.

Macroneuropteris frond (I normally find them as individual leaves!)

A Macroneuropteris leaf that has oxidized in a way that turned it iridescent like an oil slick.

My pride and joy... This huge Pecopteris frond!

There are many more, I might post some of them at some point.

I returned to a Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous) site I had visited a few times and I finally found some Sphenophyllum!

[plant-taxonomy-showdown]

Phylum Round 1

Ferns and Horsetails vs Ancient Algae

Polypodiophyta (ferns and horsetails): Vascular plants that reproduce via spores, not seeds. Ferns tend to thrive in more challenging environments, from shady forests to sides of rocks and acidic bogs. Epiphyte ferns (ferns that grow on trees rather than on the ground) create important invertebrate habitat. Some ferns are grown in rice paddies to fix nitrogen. Horsetails are a “living fossil”, a genetically isolated remnant from a time when their relatives were far more abundant, hundreds of millions of years ago. Some of those lost horsetails grew to 30 m (98 ft) tall.

Glaucophyta: Not red algae, not green algae, but a secret third thing. They prefer freshwater and wet terrestrial (land) environments. There's only 14-26 known species. They were more common in the Proterozoic Era, from 2500 to about 500 million years ago. While other algae have multiple forms of reproduction, glaucophytes only reproduce asexually.

[harpagornis]

The Fern Prarie: fact or myth?

Moschorhinus and Lystrosaurus by DiBgd. Notably, the small plants in this picture are not true ferns but the extinct seed fern Dicrodium. To help illustrate my point.

In paleoart, “fern praries” are a type of biome frequently depicted. After all, if there was no grass in the Mesozoic (until the very end, at least), what else carpetted the ground?

A lot, actually. Seed-ferns, horsetails, moss…

The idea that ferns specifically formed the Jurassic savannas is not without merit. Modern ferns are the most common carpetting plants after grass, dominating forest undergrowth and even forming small plains in clearings. Some species can live in desert environments, so even places with little moisture could hypothetically boast seasonal fern steppes.

But the thing is, why ferns when there were so many other plant groups that could fill the grass niche? Notably, seed-ferns and small gymnosperms would be equally if not more fitting in more arid conditions. Perhaps some areas were carpetted by herb-like early angiosperms, not quite grass but almost there.

Remember that most fossil assemblages are biased towards riparian environments, where ferns surely excell. But there is little evidence for small flora in drier pre-Cenozoic environments, and as such the fern prairie must be questioned as an environment. It most likely existed, but I doubt it dominated the Mesozoic open spaces.

[dropsofsciencenews]

Plants Surviving the Worst Mass Extinction

ESP Version ITA Version

When we think of mass extinctions, we often imagine the meteorite impact that killed the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. However, the greatest extinction event occurred between the Permian and Triassic periods, around 250 million years ago, eliminating over 96% of marine species and about 70% of terrestrial vertebrates. But how did plants fare?

According to a study conducted by University College Cork, the University of Connecticut, and the Natural History Museum of Vienna, plants did not experience a mass extinction comparable to that of animals. Nevertheless, their communities were severely impacted or even completely destroyed due to extreme climatic conditions: intense heat, drought, depletion of the ozone layer, widespread wildfires, and contamination by toxic heavy metals.

The study analyzed fossils from the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia, which at the time was located near the South Pole. Researchers gathered sedimentological data (physical, chemical, and depositional characteristics of sediments), biostratigraphic data (fossil distribution within rock layers), and stable carbon isotope ratios from organic matter, reconstructing environmental conditions of that era.

Fossils revealed that the first plants to recolonize devastated landscapes were conifers. Unfortunately, these conifers did not survive a subsequent period of extreme heat known as the Late Smithian Thermal Maximum, which lasted around 700,000 years. In this hostile environment, stress-tolerant, cosmopolitan lycophytes, similar to modern clubmosses, became dominant. Later, during a cooling event (Smithian-Spathian event), large and unusual seed ferns (such as "umkomasialea") emerged, gradually forming more stable and lush forests. These plants laid the foundation for the Mesozoic dinosaur era and the immense fern-dominated forests that persist in our collective imagination.

This research underscores the importance of protecting modern forests because, as the authors emphasize, "forests eventually recover, but the extinction of individual species is forever." Complete ecosystem recovery takes millions of years, and preserving today's plants ensures stability for future food webs and climate systems.

Pic by Fabien Monteil from Pixabay

Source

[rabbitcruiser]

National Love a Tree Day

National Love A Tree Day is celebrated every year on May 16 and it falls right in the middle of Garden for Wildlife Month. Did you know trees actually didn’t exist for the first 90% of Earth’s history? Shocking, isn’t it? Before trees, our Earth had fungi that grew 26 feet tall and resembled trees. Trees have played an irreplaceable role in the smooth functioning of our environment and celebrating this special day dedicated to them is the least we can do to appreciate them.

History of National Love a Tree Day

Trees can be thousands and thousands of years old with many species tending to have long lifespans. In fact, trees can be traced back to the creation of the world, according to the Bible and the story of Adam and Eve who ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

From well-preserved cellular anatomy, it has been found that Cladoxylopsida were the first species of large trees to appear on Earth almost 400 million years ago in the Devonian period. The other earliest trees were known to be tree ferns, horsetails, and lycophytes and, currently, it is estimated that there are close to three trillion mature trees in the world.

Trees have so many benefits — they provide us with lumber, food, nuts, oxygen to breathe, home for wildlife, and much more. Trees are even used for ornamental and decoration purposes. In the United States itself, there are approximately 766 million acres of forest land.

Trees form an essential part of our environment and, over the years, their importance has been taught to children growing up. Even in recent times, individuals have become so environmentally conscious that a sustainable lifestyle to protect our trees has become the norm. Most people now want to protect and preserve our trees, which make the world a better and safer place to live in.

While the hunt to find the origins of this day is still on, an entire day of appreciation for trees that have given us so much is the least we can do.

National Love a Tree Day timeline

1800 Christmas Tree Tradition

European nobles and officials adopt and popularize the tradition of setting up evergreen conifer trees in homes for Christmas.

1830 –1860 Joshua Tree’s Name

These plants get their name from Mormon settlers as the shape of the tree’s branches reminds them of a biblical passage wherein Joshua raises his hands to the sky in prayer.

1994 Wollemia Trees Found

A few survivors of these ancient trees that were once thought to be extinct are found living in a temperate rainforest in Australia.

2007 First Tree Fossil

Fossils of probably the first tree, Wattieza, that date back to the middle Devonian period, are found in New York State.

National Love a Tree Day FAQs

What day is Tree Day?

Arbor Day occurs on the last Friday in April.

What is World Tree Day?

World Tree or Forest Day is celebrated annually on 21 March.

How are trees important?

They give us clean water to drink, air to breathe, shade, and food for humans, animals, and plants. They provide habitats for numerous species of fauna and flora, firewood for cooking and heat, materials for buildings and places of spiritual, cultural, and recreational importance.

How To Celebrate National Love a Tree Day

Hug a tree

Plant a tree native to your area

Go for a walk in the woods

Release your inner tree hugger and go hug some trees to show them your love. Make sure you do it in front of some people so you can inspire them to show their love to these gentle giants too!

Do some quick research on trees that are native to your area. Once done, you can go ahead and purchase some seeds for that tree and plant them. Put in an effort to look after it as much as possible and see the fruits of your labor grow, literally.

Trees are a vital part of nature and exist all around us. Why not spend the day among trees to celebrate? Go for a walk in the woods and soak in the beauty of trees.

5 Facts About Trees That Will Blow Your Mind

The oldest tree

Space travel

They save you money

Trees can communicate

Trees are very thirsty

A bristlecone pine tree named Methuselah has lived for more than 4,800 years and is older than the Egyptian Pyramids.

Trees have kind of traveled to space when tree seeds were taken up by Apollo 14 astronauts.

Having a mature tree’s shade near your house can actually help to reduce your home cooling bill by approximately 20% in the summer.

It has been found that trees start producing a chemical called phenolics when they detect an insect raid, which acts as a signal for other trees.

An average tree can drink up to almost 530 gallons of water annually.

Why We Love National Love A Tree Day

Trees keep our streets and homes cooler

It helps to reconnect with Earth

Trees are a habitat for wildlife

Urban areas can get significantly hot and even more so in summer. This is when our loving trees come to the rescue! The shade and water vapor provided by trees can keep urban areas so much cooler. National Love A Tree Day is a perfect opportunity to acknowledge the importance of this green cover.

Planting a tree or simply taking care of existing trees can evoke a sense of belonging with nature. Trees are nature, after all, and spending time with them can help you reconnect with Earth. National Love a Tree Day can be a good place to start if you’ve been feeling a disconnect with nature and life outside of routine work.

Of course, we know that a lot of animals live in the forests and need trees for survival. Trees are home to a diverse range of birds, insects, and mammals. A simple tree will also house hundreds or thousands of small creatures like snakes, frogs, millipedes, ants, termites, spiders, to name a few. National Love a Tree Day helps us appreciate these beauties that are essentially home to so many living beings.

Source

[weweantica]

horsetails (Equisetum arvense) are a very common wetland plant in springtime. these living fossils still reproduce with spores, like ferns do, instead of seeds.

[sinosauropteryx--prima]

Life in the Carboniferous

(first row: Diplocaulus, Lepidodendron, Arthropleura; second row: Meganeura, Hylonomus, Walchia, Pulmonoscorpius; third row: Tullimonstrum, Calamites, Edestus; fourth row: Pederpes, Eryops, Stethacanthus)

Art by:

Pederpes - Ntvtiko

Lepidodendron - Richard Bizley

Calamites - Jonathan Hughes

Walchia - Dinoraul

Arthropleura - Vladislav Egorov

Meganeura - Walking with Monsters

Pulmonoscorpius - Plioart

Hylonomus - John Sibbeck

Diplocaulus - Sergey Krasovskiy

Eryops - mmuyano

Tullimonstrum - Nobu Tamura

Edestus - Julio Lacerda

Stethacanthus - Ja Chirinos

It‘s the age of giant bugs!

But before I get to talk about giant bugs, we have to take a moment and appreciate the real stars of the Carboniferous: The plants! The whole reason it is called Carboniferous (“coal-bearing“) is because of them. The forests of the time got flooded repeatedly, decayed, rotted and over the ages have turned into coal deposits that we use today. So whenever you hear people talk about fossil fuels coming from dinosaurs you can “well-actually“ them and talk about ancient plants instead.

During the Carboniferous earth was a warm, humid place with lots of tropical swamp forests. Some of the plants you would have seen there are roughly familiar to us today, like ferns. Similar looking were the seed ferns, which are extinct today. They reproduced by making seeds (shocking, I know), unlike “regular“ ferns, that reproduce via spores.

In some cases the plant groups are still around today, but they look nothing like their Carboniferous counterparts. Calamites for example was a horsetail that grew into more than 30 m high tree-like structures. Closely related to the small modern clubmosses were the Lepidodendrales (“scale trees“, named after their bark, which looked like scaly reptile skin). Lepidodendron could grow up to 50 m tall and would have spend most of its life as a single unbranched stem, which definitely added to the weird alien feel of Carboniferous forests. A more familiar sight were the earliest conifers, like Walchia, which lived during the late Carboniferous. Many other modern plants including grasses, flowers or hardwood trees, like maples or oaks, weren‘t around yet and wouldn‘t be for many millions of years.

Now that we have established that the forests of the time were strange and alien filled with plants of all kinds of weird shapes and unusual sizes, let‘s look at the bugs, which were also having all the wrong sizes:

Among many others there was the dragonfly cousin Meganeura with a wingspan of more than 70 cm, Pulmonoscorpius, an about 70 cm long scorpion and Arthropleura, a truly gigantic millipede, more than 2 m long. It was comparable in size to the biggest sea scorpions and one of the biggest arthropods that ever lived.

The questions is of course, why were insects and other arthropods this big? The main answer is oxygen. Insects have a very different breathing system than we do and it doesn‘t scale well with size. Because of that they have a size limit. At some point, they just can‘t get enough oxygen into their bodies (thankfully, because I don‘t need giant spiders or mosquitos or whatever). During the Carboniferous however, there was a lot more oxygen in the atmosphere than there is today, so the arthropods could grow much bigger than they do today.

Another reason for the giant bugs might be, that they didn‘t really have a lot of competition. There was nothing to keep them in check, so evolution just went wild with them. You have to remember that, while insects were already taking to the skies, the proudest accomplishment of our tetrapod ancestors was crawling from one puddle to another. To say that arthropods had a head start would be an understatement. So for future references, remember that every time I mention a cool thing any vertebrate does, there probably was an insect that did the same thing millions of years earlier.

But speaking of the tetrapods: They were getting better at crawling between puddles. We get the first true amphibians like boomerang-headed Diplocaulus and the giant Eryops, one of the biggest land animals of the time (you know, roughly milliped-sized). Maybe even more exciting was that during this time we see the first amniots! That‘s right, there are animals that lay eggs now. Real, actual eggs, that can survive without water. These lizard-like creatures (they aren‘t actual lizards, those will take a lot longer to evolve) can finally leave the puddles and rivers their amphibian cousins have been bound to.

It‘s probably a good thing, that they can leave the water behind, because there was some very weird shit going on in the oceans. After the placoderms went extinct during the late Devonian mass extinction (rip), a lot of bizarre shark relatives showed up, like Stethacanthus with its anvil shaped dorsal fin or the absolute horror that is Edestus.

But the weirdest thing of the Carboniferous (maybe one of the weirdest things ever) has to be the Tully monster (btw, not really a monster, only about 35 cm long). I mean, just look at it. It has a mouth that is separated from the rest of its body by a proboscis. It has stalked eyes. It is weird as fuck. We also have absolutely no idea what it is. Science agrees that it is an animal, and that‘s about it. There are arguments for it being a vertebrate, an arthropod, a mollusc, a worm and pretty much anything else you could think of. Honestly I just love it because of how strange and fake it looks.

[imexperiencinggrowthgetoverit]

List of all SDV and SDV:E (Stardew Valley: Expanded) Giftable Items

Horseradish

Daffodil

Leek

Dandelion

Parsnip

Cave Carrot

Coconut

Cactus

Banana

Sap

Large Egg

Egg

Milk

Large Milk

Green Bean

Cauliflower

Potato

Garlic

Kale

Rhubarb

Melon

Tomato

Morsel

Blueberry

Fiddlehead Fern

Hot Pepper

Wheat

Radish

Red Cabbage

Starfruit

Corn

Rice

Eggplant

Artichoke

Pumpkin

Bokchoy

Yam

Chanterelle

Cranberry

Holly

Beets

Ostrich Egg

Salmonberry

Amouranth

Pale Ale

Hops

Void Egg

Mayonnaise

Duck Mayonnaise

Void Mayonnaise

Clay

Copper Bar

Silver Bar

Gold Bar

Iridium Bar

Refined Quartz

Honey

Pickles

Jam

Beer

Wine

Juice

Clam

Poppy

Copper Ore

Silver Ore

Coal

Gold Ore

Iridium Ore

Wood

Stone

Nautilus Shell

Coral

Summer Shell

Spice Berry

Sea Urchin

Grape

Spring Onion

Strawberry

Sweet Pea

Common Mushroom

Wild Plum

Hazelnut

Blackberry

Winter Root

Crystal Fruit

Snow Yam

Sweet Gem Berry

Crocus

Red Mushroom

Sunflower

Purple Mushroom

Cheese

Goat Cheese

Cloth

Truffle

Truffle Oil

Coffee Bean

Goat Milk

Large Goat Milk

Wool

Duck Egg

Duck Feather

Caviar

Lucky Rabbit’s Foot

Aged Roe

Ancient Fruit

Mead

Tulip

Summer Spangle

Fairy Rose

Blue Jazz

Apple

Green Tea

Apricot

Orange

Peach

Pomegranate

Cherry

Bug Meat

Hardwood

Maple Syrup

Oak Resin

Pine Tar

Slime

Bat Wing

Rusty Blade

Swirl Stone

Solar Essence

Void Essence

Void Pebble

Void Shard

Void Soul

Fiber

Battery

Dinosaur Mayonnaise

Roe

Squid Ink

Tea Leaves

Ginger

Taro Root

Pineapple

Mango

Cinder Shard

Magma Cap

Bone Fragment

Radioactive Ore

Radioactive Bar

Ancient Fiber

Bearberry

Conch

Dried Sand Dollar

Ferngill Primrose

Golden Ocean Flower

Goldenrod

Green Mushroom

Four-Leaf Clover

Monster Fruit

Monster Mushroom

Mushroom Colony

Poison Mushroom

Red Baneberry

Salal Berry

Slime Berry

Rafflesia

Sports Drink

Stamina Capsule

Thistle

Void Root

Winter Star Ross

Dewdrop Berry

Aged Blue Moon Wine

Blue Moon Wine

Aegis Elixir

Armor Elixir

Barbarian Elixir

Gravity Elixir

Haste Exilir

Hero Elixir

Lightning Elixir

Pufferfish

Anchovy

Tuna

Sardine

Bream

Largemouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass

Rainbow Trout

Salmon

Walleye

Perch

Carp

Catfish

Pike

Sunfish

Red Snapper

Herring

Eel

Octopus

Red Mullet

Squid

Seaweed

Green Algae

Seacucumber

Super Seacucumber

Ghost Carp

White Algae

Stone Fish

Crimsonfish

Angler

Icepip

Lava Eel

Legend

Sandfish

Scorpion Carp

Flounder

Midnight Carp

Mutant Carp

Sturgeon

Tiger Trout

Bullhead

Tilapia

Chub

Dorado

Albacore

Shad

Lingcod

Halibut

Lobster

Crayfish

Crab

Cockle

Mussel

Shrimp

Snail

Periwinkle

Oyster

Woodskip

Glacierfish

Void Salmon

Slimejack

Midnight Squid

Spookfish

Blobfish

Stingray

Lionfish

Blue Discus

Baby Lunaloo

Bonefish

Bull Trout

Butterfish

Clownfish

Daggerfish

Dulse Seaweed

Frog

Gemfish

Goldenfish

Grass Carp

King Salmon

Kittyfish

Lunaloo

Meteor Carp

Minnow

Puppyfish

Radioactive Bass

Razor Trout

Seahorse

Sea Sponge

Shiny Lunaloo

Snatcher Worm

Starfish

Torpedo Trout

Undeadfish

Void Eel

Water Grub

Dwarf Scroll 1

Dwarf Scroll 2

Dwarf Scroll 3

Dwarf Scroll 4

Chipped Amphora

Arrowhead

Ancient Doll

Elvish Jewelry

Chewing Stick

Ornamental Fan

Dinosaur Egg

Rare Disc

Ancient Sword

Rusty Spoon

Rusty Spur

Rusty Cog

Chicken Statue

Ancient Seed

Prehistoric Tool

Dried Starfish

Anchor

Glass Shards

Bone Flute

Prehistoric Handaxe

Dwarvish Helm

Dwarf Gadget

Ancient Drum

Golden Mask

Golden Relic

Strange Doll

Strange Doll

Prehistoric Scapula

Prehistoric Tibia

Prehistoric Skull

Skeletal Hand

Prehistoric Rib

Prehistoric Vertebrae

Skeletal Tail

Nautilus Shell

Amphibian Fossil

Palm Fossil

Trilobite

Emerald

Aquamarine

Ruby

Amethyst

Topaz

Jade

Diamond

Prismatic Shard

Quartz

Fire Quartz

Frozen Tear

Earth Crystal

Alamite

Bixite

Baryite

Aerinite

Calcite

Dolomite

Esperite

Fluorapatite

Geminite

Helvite

Jamborite

Jagoite

Kyanite

Lunarite

Malachite

Nepunite

Lemon Stone

Nekoite

Orpiment

Petrified Slime

Thunder Egg

Pyrite

Ocean Stone

Ghost Crystal

Tiger’s Eye

Jasper

Opal

Fire Opal

Celestine

Marble

Sandstone

Granite

Basalt

Limestone

Soapstone

Hematite

Mudstone

Obsidian

Slate

Fairy Stone

Star Shards

Fried Egg

Omelet

Salad

Cheese Cauliflower

Baked Fish

Parsnip Soup

Vegetable Medley

Complete Breakfast

Fried Calimari

Strange Bun

Lucky Lunch

Fried Mushrooms

Pizza

Bean Hotpot

Glazed Yams

Carp Surprise

Hashbrowns

Pancakes

Salmon Dinner

Fish Taco

Crispy Bass

Pepper Poppers

Bread

Tom Kha Soup

Trout Soup

Chocolate Cake

Pink Cake

Rhubarb Pie

Cookies

Spaghetti

Spicy Eel

Sashimi

Maki Roll

Tortilla

Red Plate

Eggplant Parmesan

Rice Pudding

Ice Cream

Bluberry Tart

Autumn’s Bounty

Pumpkin Soup

Super Meal

Cranberry Sauce

Stuffing

Farmer’s Lunch

Survival Burger

Dish’O’The Sea

Miner’s Treat

Roots Platter

Triple Shot Espresso

Seafoam Pudding

Algae Soup

Pale Broth

Plum Pudding

Artichoke Dip

Stir Fry

Roasted Hazelnuts

Pumpkin Pie

Radish Salad

Fruit Salad

Blackberry Cobbler

Cranberry Candy

Bruschetta

Coleslaw

Fiddlehead Risotto

Poppyseed Muffin

Chowder

Fish Stew

Escargot

Lobster Bisque

Maple Bar

Crab Cakes

Shrimp Cocktail

Ginger Ale

Banana Pudding

Mango Sticky Rice

Poi

Tropical Curry

Squid Ink Ravioli

Mushroom Berry Rice

Big Bark Burger

Flower Cookie

Frog Legs

Glazed Butterfish

Grampleton Orange Chicken

Mixed Berry Pie

Baked Berry Oatmeal

Void Delight

Void Salmon Sushi

[isedasounds]

Happy new year: More on Leaf Evolution from The Emerald Planet.

There's a note on how this blog may continue in the future at the bottom.

Answering the question from the last post:

So, why did it take so long for plants to develop leaves?

Image source: Beerling, D.J., & Fleming, A.J. (2007). Zimmermann's telome theory of megaphyll leaf evolution: a molecular and cellular critique. Current opinion in plant biology, 10 1, 4-12 .

Short answer:

It was due to a complex interplay of phenomena where plants themselves, undergoing a Paleozoic "big bang", caused CO2 to drop by proliferating, growing, and evolving complex body plans, and also weathering continental silicate rocks alongside fungi, which removed more CO2 from the atmosphere, disrupting the previous stasis of the long term carbon cycle (of tectonics, volcanoes, rocks, weathering). Low CO2 then allowed plants to develop more stomata, a precursor to the ability to grow larger leaves. This in turn was a precursor to the growth of taller trees, and further abundant plant diversification.

Long answer:

The first knee high trees and shrubs on the landscape were forking twigs, with no leaves, for 30 million years. 360 million years ago, by the start of the carboniferous, leafy plants were firmly established and widespread among flora. It took about 40-50 million years from the first forking twigs for leaves to be widespread, whereas by comparison, for example, humans evolved from primates in 1/10 of the time. Leaves originated independently in three other plant groups- Sphenopsids, Pteridosperms (ferns) and seed plants.

But, before this marine algae fossils were found in Canadian dolomite with fronds that predated widespread leaved-plants (dated 390 million years ago) with tiny 1-2 mm diameter leaves. Though a full and proper understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying leaf evolution are still some way off, for now it seems that a genetic "toolkit" for assembly of leaves has been in place long before they proliferated [See Supplemental notes - it's interesting].

400 to 350 million years ago - the same time as the plants' botanical "Cambrian explosion", atmospheric CO2 levels plummeted tenfold, which was unprecedented in the last 500 million years. This led to a major ice age, a weakened greenhouse effect, and the formation of massive glaciers.

How were stomata important in this plant explosion?

Plant leaves have been demonstrated to develop more stomata when there is less atmospheric CO2 - shown by Ian Woodward (1987) from herbaria records, and observations of fewer stomata in trees during the Industrial Revolution with higher CO2 - to conserve water loss. (Interestingly, this happens by mature leaves communicating with newly developing leaves about the optimum number of stomata to produce for the environmental conditions they will soon encounter.)

The number of stomata hold significance for plant's ability to keep cool. More pores confer an increased capacity to keep cool (more transpiration possible), but this is made more difficult with larger leaves, because as air flows over the leaf surface to remove heat, they are slowed by friction of air molecules against the leaf surface, and larger leaves have more surface area, so there is more friction, making their heat loss less efficient than with smaller leaves.

It is thought that a large drop in atmospheric CO2, permitted plants to produce more stomata, which allowed bigger leaves to stay cool and proliferate.

It would be hard to know for certain that it happened exactly like this but also, there are fossils of different plants showing leaf size growth in different types of plants growing in response to CO2 concentrations falling - Archaeopteris, pteridosperms, and a conifer precursor group. This confirms a central prediction of the CO2 hypothesis of later leaf development.

With low CO2 and stomata regulation changing in response to the economics of heat loss in plants, plants also evolved sophisticated root/shoot water transport systems, which increased the capacity to cool down these larger, high-stomata, high transpiration leaves.

A marine animal analogue: Interestingly, a similar barrier / spark has been proposed to have caused the explosion of marine invertebrate animals during the Cambria: Low atmospheric Oxygen was raised, which led to the evolution of complex multi-cellular animals (there is some merit to this because physically larger organisms need more oxygen to sustain their metabolism). Here, as larger, more diverse, marine animals evolved with structures like joints, shells, and complex eyes, they in turn drove the evolution of more complex animals to evade, defend, and protect against predation.

In both cases, ecology itself played a role in transforming the ecosystems as CO2 levels fell. In the botanical case, larger leaves led to the development of taller plants to avoid large leaves.

Plants themselves probably led to the initial CO2 level decline, by disrupting the abiotic processes for exchange of CO2 between rocks, oceans, and the atmosphere. This is referring to the long-term carbon cycle: The earth's cycle wherein volcanic eruptions due to tectonics, cause Co2 release, causing a warmer climate and precipitation, leading to rock weathering, which consumes CO2, weakening the greenhouse effect (a negative/stabilizing feedback loop - think of it as a thermostat that keeps control of global climate over 100s of thousands to millions of years). Plants disrupted this by taking in so much CO2 in their proliferation and evolving appendages/size, and also by developing growing roots that weather rocks, and the weathered rocks then store more CO2.

Even though plants caused the CO2 decline that stressed them and caused them to develop more stomata, their proliferation and diversification shows this kingdom benefitting in the end. And many others living beings were supported by the new abundance of plants.

Source:

Beerling, D. (2017). The emerald planet: how plants changed Earth's history. Oxford University Press.

Notes:

Proper fossil leaf specimens show extinct genus of early trees Archaeopteris, showing plants starting to exploit photosynthetic proficiency of a flat solar panel (i.e. more surface area, flat) for capturing sunlight and powering photosynthesis.

2. Genetics :

KNOX or knotted homeobox genes organize growth and development by ensuring that cells take on the right form and function depending on where they are on the plant. This was critical for leaf formation. This gene can be transferred into different plants and still take on this function, which is to be expected with evolutionary old genes.

KNOX off is a state that causes leaf growth: sideways outgrowth protrude from the shoot which then develop into leaves. And this is the same approach to making leaves developed by many independent plant groups.

Leaf development also requires that genes "know" how to assemble the upper (sunlight intercepting and processing) and lower (CO2 absorbing) parts of their leaves. These genes are also old - about 400 million years old.

Plant adaptation to CO2 concentrations may very well be part of their basic evolutionary existence.

3. People:

Julie Grey discovered the gene that regulates stomata formation, and it is theorized to reduce stomata by depositing specific fatty acids into specialized cells of the pores, and inhibiting neighbor cells from developing more stomata.

Some of the scientists credited with charting the evolutionary trajectory of leaves and making discoveries/insights that led to more discoveries are: Walter Zimmerman (died 1980) and poet/philosopher Johann Wolfgang Goethe - the adventurous ideas of Goethe on plant metamorphosis were accepted by scientists such as Darwin.

Zimmerman's "telome" theory of leaves arising in 4 main steps (3D branching, side branching, further dividing side branches, webbing) explained the how but not why for paleobotanists of leaf development over evolutionary time.

Blog Notes:

Last week I continued to learn geology with some emphasis on causes and consequences of mass extinctions, the evolution of life and paleobiology, marine biology, marine science, wildlife ecology, climate science, astronomy, and physics. I have decided to continue in marine science, and this blog's changing focus should reflect that, as well as further developments. I plan on finishing The Emerald Planet and documenting it here, as there are important foundations on geology, plants, oceans, and their relationships (and, it's a very interesting book).

Main learning sources this week: The Emerald Planet (book, described in this post); Life on Our Planet, Our Planet, Our Planet II (docu-series), Mission Blue (documentary), sporadic scientific articles; astronomy/astrophysics - Our Universe show, various astronomy and telescope research; physics - a brilliant Coursera course, associated readings, Easy Physics podcast).

[charring58]

PLANT SCIENCE INCLUDES PALEOBOTANY, THE STUDY OF PLANT HISTORY.

WHY STUDY 300,000,000-YEAR-OLD FOSSILS OF THESE LYCOPODS -THE TREES THAT ONCE DOMINATED ILLINOIS THEN-SWAMPY FORESTS? ONE REASON BECAUSE THEY GREW HERE, FELL, DECAYED INTO PEAT, AND WERE COMPRESSED INTO THE COAL THAT'S MINED IN ILLINOIS TODAY. AT LEFT IS A #FOSSIL OF A SEED FERN, AN UNDERSTORY PLANT FROM THE SAME ANCIENT FORESTS.

[flowersinfos]

Flowers are one of nature's most beautiful creations. They add color, fragrance, and life to our world. But beyond their beauty, flowers have some amazing and interesting facts that many people may not know. In this article, we'll explore some fascinating facts about flowers that will make you appreciate them even more.

1. Flowers Are Older Than Dinosaurs

Did you know that flowers have been around for a very long time? In fact, the first flowering plants appeared on Earth over 140 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs. However, flowers evolved much later than other plants like ferns and conifers. Today, there are more than 400,000 species of flowering plants on Earth.

For more detailed information on different types of flowers, including their names and meanings, be sure to check out flowers names. Whether you're a flower enthusiast or just curious about these beautiful plants, you'll find plenty of fascinating information to explore.

2. Some Flowers Bloom Only at Night

Most people are familiar with flowers that bloom during the day, but did you know that some flowers bloom only at night? These flowers, like the Moonflower and the Evening Primrose, open their petals after the sun goes down. They often have strong fragrances to attract nocturnal pollinators like moths.

3. The Largest Flower in the World

The largest flower in the world is the Rafflesia arnoldii, also known as the "corpse flower." This gigantic flower can grow up to three feet in diameter and weigh up to 15 pounds! Despite its beauty, the corpse flower has a strong odor similar to that of rotting meat. This smell attracts flies and beetles, which help pollinate the flower.

4. Flowers Can Change Colors

Some flowers have the ability to change color depending on their environment or stage of life. For example, the Hydrangea can change color based on the pH level of the soil it’s planted in. In acidic soil, the flowers turn blue, while in alkaline soil, they turn pink. This unique feature makes Hydrangeas popular in gardens.

5. Flowers and Their Meanings

Flowers have long been associated with specific meanings and emotions. For example, red roses symbolize love and passion, while white lilies represent purity and innocence. This practice, known as floriography, was especially popular during the Victorian era when people used flowers to send secret messages.

6. Some Flowers Are Edible

Not all flowers are just for looking at; some are also edible! Flowers like pansies, nasturtiums, and marigolds can be used to add color and flavor to salads, desserts, and other dishes. However, it’s important to make sure that the flowers you eat are safe and free from pesticides.

7. The World’s Oldest Flower

The fossil of the oldest known flower is of a plant called Montsechia vidalii. This ancient flowering plant lived around 130 million years ago and was discovered in Spain. The discovery of this fossil helped scientists learn more about the early evolution of flowering plants.

8. The Scent of Flowers

The scent of a flower is one of its most delightful features. But did you know that the fragrance of a flower is a way for it to communicate? Flowers produce different scents to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds. Some flowers have sweet, pleasant smells, while others have strong, pungent odors to attract specific types of pollinators.

9. Flowers and Bees

Bees play a crucial role in the life of flowers. They help with pollination, which is the process that allows flowers to produce seeds and reproduce. Bees are attracted to the bright colors and sweet scents of flowers. As they collect nectar, they transfer pollen from one flower to another, helping plants grow and thrive.

10. Flowers and Health Benefits

Flowers are not just beautiful to look at; they also have health benefits. Some flowers, like lavender and chamomile, are known for their calming and soothing properties. Lavender oil is often used in aromatherapy to reduce stress and promote relaxation, while chamomile tea is a popular remedy for insomnia and anxiety.

11. The World's Most Expensive Flower

The most expensive flower in the world is the Kadupul flower, also known as the “Queen of the Night.” This rare and delicate flower blooms only once a year, at night, and wilts before dawn. Because it is so rare and cannot be harvested without damaging it, the Kadupul flower has no market price.

12. Flowers and Cultural Significance

Flowers hold significant cultural importance in many parts of the world. For example, in Japan, the cherry blossom is a symbol of renewal and the fleeting nature of life. In India, marigolds are used in religious ceremonies and celebrations. Different cultures around the world have their own unique traditions and meanings associated with flowers.

13. Flowers That Attract Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are attracted to flowers that are brightly colored, especially red, orange, and pink. Flowers like trumpet vine, salvia, and petunias are particularly popular with these tiny birds. The shape of these flowers makes it easy for hummingbirds to reach the nectar with their long beaks.

14. The Healing Power of Flowers

Flowers have been used for their healing properties for centuries. For example, the calendula flower is known for its anti-inflammatory properties and is often used in creams and ointments to soothe skin irritations. The echinacea flower is believed to boost the immune system and is commonly used in herbal remedies to fight off colds and infections.

15. Flowers in Space

Flowers are not just limited to Earth; they have also made their way to space! In 2016, astronauts on the International Space Station successfully grew a zinnia flower in space. This was an important step in learning how to grow food in space, which will be crucial for future long-term space missions.

16. Flowers and Art

Flowers have inspired artists for centuries. From Van Gogh's famous sunflower paintings to Georgia O'Keeffe's close-up flower portraits, flowers have been a popular subject in art. Their vibrant colors, delicate shapes, and natural beauty make them a favorite among artists and art lovers alike.

17. Flowers in Literature

Flowers are often used as symbols in literature. For example, in Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” the character Ophelia uses flowers to symbolize her emotions and relationships. In modern literature, flowers are still used to convey themes of love, beauty, and the passage of time.

18. Flowers as Gifts

Giving flowers as gifts is a universal gesture of love, appreciation, and celebration. Whether it’s a bouquet of roses on Valentine’s Day, a bunch of daisies for a friend, or lilies for a wedding, flowers are a timeless way to express our feelings.

Flowers are truly remarkable, with so many interesting facts and qualities that make them special. From their ancient origins to their cultural significance, flowers have played an important role in our world for millions of years. They bring beauty, joy, and a touch of nature into our lives, making the world a more vibrant and colorful place.

[jhavelikes]

According to a research team led by paleontologists from the University of Vienna, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times. Using new methods, the fossilized plant Furcula granulifer was identified as an early forerunner. The leaves of this seed fern species already exhibited the net-like veining in the late Triassic (around 201 million years ago).

Seed ferns experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago, paleontologists find