Hermsen Lab

  I attended the Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia from May 6th to 7th to present the talk "Seeds of Passiflora  subgenus Decaloba  from the early Pliocene Gray Fossil Site of Tennessee." 

  I gave a virtual presentation for the Atlanta Botanical Garden's Science Café on September 16, 2021. The video can be viewed on their website or on YouTube. Thanks to Atlanta Botanical Garden for the invitation and to everyone who attended! YouTube link:  https://youtu.be/z5pARaEXWpM

I have a sole-authored paper out in the July/August issue of  International Journal of Plant Sciences  describing a new species of fossil passionflower ( Passiflora ) from Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee. This paper is part of the special issue "Celebrating Women in Paleobotany: A tribute to Edith L. Taylor." Citation: Hermsen, E.J. 2021. Review of the fossil record of Passiflora , with a description of new seeds from the Pliocene Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee, U.S.A. International Journal of Plant Sciences 182: 611–621. https://doi.org/10.1086/714282

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

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 .

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).