Hermsen Lab

The Public Market, Seattle, Washington The Geological Society of America annual meeting for 2017 was held in Seattle, Washington. I presented a paper on mosquito ferns coauthored with scientists from Cornell University, Nathan Jud and María A. Gandolfo. You can read the abstract here .

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/ "

The Hermsen lab was well-represented at the 34th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium , held from May 12 to May 14, 2017, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One poster and one talk were contributed based on research from the lab; the poster included two student co-authors. For more information, see the following links: 34th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium Abstracts Ohio University College of Arts & Sciences Forum:  "Hermsen presents on understanding fossil record of the water clover family" Ohio University College of Arts & Sciences Forum:  "Welker presents poster on fruits from Tennessee's Gray Fossil Site"

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. María 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. 

Eucalyptus,  Natural Bridges State Beach, California The  October 2015 Land for Wildlife South East Queensland newsletter  features a summary of a 2012 paper on Eucalyptus from the early Eocene (ca. 52 million-year-old) Laguna del Hunco flora of Patagonia, Argentina, by Doug Mohr. I co-authored the  original study , which was featured in the August 2012 issue of  American Journal of Botany,  with María A. Gandolfo of Cornell University and María del Carmen Zamaloa of the Universidad de Buenos Aires. 

Marsilea,  Liberty Hyde Bailey Conservatory Greenhouse, Cornell University My trips to the 33rd Northeast-Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium and  10th Annual Summer Symposium at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, New York, were covered in Ohio University's College of Arts & Sciences Forum .

Fossil wood from the Museum of the Earth, Ithaca, New York Over the summer, Dr. María A. Gandolfo and myself published a new paper entitled " Fruits of Juglandaceae from the Eocene of South America " in Systematic Botany . The accompanying data files are housed in the Dryad Digital Repository. This is part of a large ongoing research project on the Paleogene fossil floras of Patagonia.  In August, I attended the 10th Annual Summer Symposium at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, New York. I gave an updated presentation on the fossil record of water clovers, entitled "Fossil water clovers and wannabees."