Hermsen Lab

Title for my Botany 2020 presentation I attended the Botany 2020 virtual conference, where I presented a talk on fossil passionflower seeds from Gray Fossil Site. I also coauthored a poster on the phylogeny of fossil and living mosquito ferns. The talks and links to the abstracts are below: Hermsen, E.J.*  2020. Fossil  Passiflora  seeds from Gray Fossil Site (Pliocene, Tennessee, U.S.A.).  Link to abstract Jud, N.*, F. De Benedetti,  E.J. Hermsen , and M. Gandolfo. 2020. Estimating the phylogeny of  Azolla : a comparison between analysis of morphology and molecular data with and without tip-dating. [Poster]  Link to abstract

Leaves of different vascular plants (left to right: shining firmoss, a tree fern, and a cycad) I have posted a new page on Leaf Structure & Evolution to the Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life. You can view it here:  https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/embryophytes/tracheophytes/leaves/

I was featured on episode 5 of Paleo Talks, speaking on the subject of Gray Fossil Site plants. The full episode is now available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UyLfhJHSzWQ

Left: Fossil seed of Corylopsis grisea , Gray Fossil Site. Right: Modern Corylopsis  seed. Credit: E.J. Hermsen. East Tennessee State University has released a story about the two new plant species that I recently co-authored from Gray Fossil Site: Corylopsis grisea Quirk & Hermsen and Cavilignum pratchettii Siegert & Hermsen. First authors on the species are Zack Quirk (currently a graduate student at the University of Michigan) and Caroline Siegert (alumna, Ohio University). Read about the new species here: Fossil plants provide clues to changing environments in Tennessee's past .

Modern and fossil fruits of golden raintree ( Koelreuteria ). Credits: Modern fruits (E.J. Hermsen); fossil fruit (National Park Service) I have posted a new page on Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life (DEAL): Fruit & seed dispersal. You can find it here:  https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/embryophytes/angiosperms/dispersal/

Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee, USA Caroline Siegert and I have published a new paper on extinct fossil endocarps from Gray Fossil Site, an early Pliocene sinkhole deposit located in eastern Tennessee, USA.  You may download a free PDF copy of the paper at the following link before March 27, 2020:  https://authors.elsevier.com/ a/1aX9K7uTvVL9- The citation is:  Siegert, C., and E.J. Hermsen. 2020.   Cavilignum pratchettii   gen. et sp. nov., a novel fossil endocarp with open locules from the Neogene Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee, U.S.A.   Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 275 (pages not yet assigned).

Santa Cruz Province, Argentina From January 2-19, I traveled to Patagonia, Argentina with members of the Gandolfo Lab (Plant Biology Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University) to do fieldwork in Santa Cruz and Chubut Provinces. Other members of the trip were affiliated with the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (MEF, Trelew, Chubut, Argentina) and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne, Australia). The trip focused on two fossil floras, one from the Miocene of Santa Cruz Province and the other from the Paleocene of Chubut Province. The specimens we collected will fuel future research in the years to come.