Laguna del Hunco A new paper describing fossil Ceratopetalum (coachwood, New South Wales Christmas bush) fruits has been published in Annals of Botany . The paper documents new winged fruits from the early Eocene (ca. 52 million years old) Laguna del Hunco flora of Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. I co-authored the paper with Dr. MarĂa A. Gandolfo of Cornell University. Update (March 2017): A short synopsis of the paper can be found in the Content Snapshots section of the March 2017 issue of Annals of Botany.
Modern and ancient passionflowers. Left: A maypop flower. Right: A fossil seed. I have recent been doing outreach about the fossil passionflowers I described from Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee. See the following for more: ETSU News: "Paleontologists discover extinct relative of Tennessee state wildflower": https://www.etsu.edu/etsu-news/2021/12-december/passionflower.php In Defense of Plants: Episode 360: Exploring a 4.5 million year old flora: https://www.indefenseofplants.com/podcast/2022/3/13/ep-360-exploring-a-45-million-year-old-flora
Logo for the 35th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium The website for the 35th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium is now live! Find information and preregister for the meeting here .