Hermsen Lab

  I have released a new page on Branching to the Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life. You can view it here:  https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/embryophytes/tracheophytes/branching/ Image explanation:  Branching in fossil plants.  Left: Stem of a scale tree ( Lepidodendron ) showing a dichotomy. Center:  Asterophyllites  (an extinct horsetail-like plant) with lateral branching. Right. Branch of dawn redwood ( Metasequoia occidentalis ) with branchlets; branching is lateral and axillary in conifers.  (Images by Fiona O'Brien, Robert Swerling, and Linda S. Klise, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, via GBIF).

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/

Florissantia calyx & Langeria leaf, Eocene, U.S.A. (Photos by Kevmin, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA; images modified.) I have posted a new angiosperm page on Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life: Overview of Angiosperm Phylogeny. Learn about the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification system (APG IV), the eight major groups of angiosperms, and the differences between monocots and eudicots. The page includes many figures, including fossils from the major angiosperm groups! https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/embryophytes/angiosperms/angiosperm-phylogeny/

Image of a chambered nautilus by J.R. Hendricks from DEAL A presentation on the Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life (DEAL) was given at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, by Dr. Jonathan R. Hendricks. The DEAL continues to expand, with a new chapter on cephalopods recently released! Work on the land plant chapter has commenced, although none of the plant pages are available yet. Stay tuned for updates. Abstract:  Hendricks, J.R.,  E.J. Hermsen , and E. Hauf. 2018. The Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life (DEAL): An open access paleontology textbook. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana (talk). doi:10.1130/abs/2018AM-318607.  LINK Related links: DEAL main page DEAL Cephalopoda chapter by J.R. Hendricks Virtual teaching collection on Sketchfab  (models by E. Hauf)

A chapter that I co-authored on the open-access Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life (DEAL) is now available online. An announcement about the chapter on the DEAL website describes it: "A new chapter on Systematics–the science of biodiversity–is now online! Written by Ohio University assistant professor Elizabeth Hermsen and Paleontological Research Institution Director of Publications Jonathan Hendricks, this chapter focuses on the nuts-and-bolts of taxonomic practice and the methodologies that systematists utilize to construct hypotheses of evolutionary relationships (or, phylogenetic trees) for living and extinct species of plants and animals.  The chapter may be accessed at:  http://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/systematics/ "