Hermsen Lab

Alligator brickwork at Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee. Over spring break, I visited the collections of the Gray Fossil Site and Museum with Hermsen lab member Zack Quirk. The Gray Fossil Site represents an ancient lake that filled a sinkhole . Fossils preserved in the sediments of this ancient lake are about 4.5 to 7 million years old, much younger than the surrounding rock. Because of this, Gray Fossil Site offers us a unique opportunity to study a relatively young fossil assemblage in the Appalachian region. Gray Fossil Site is especially well known for its diverse vertebrates, which include animals like alligators, red pandas, mastodons, and tapirs. There are also plant remains at the site, mostly in the form of seeds and fruits. Some plants that have been described from Gray Fossil Site include grape, tupelo, hickory, bladdernut, and Chinese moonseed. More discoveries coming soon!

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 .

Encephalartos ferox , a cycad in the Ohio University greenhouse The 35th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium (MPC) will be held on the campus of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, from June 1-3, 2018. A mixer will be held at a local brewery on Friday, June 1. Talks and a poster session will be held on Saturday, June 2; the day will end with a banquet and keynote speaker. On Sunday, June 3, a field trip to the Hocking Hills will be arranged. A block of dorm rooms will be reserved on campus for meeting participants to rent. For those who do not wish to stay in the dorms, local hotels and camping are available in the Athens area. Participants should be aware that the Nelsonville Music Festival will be held in nearby Nelsonville, Ohio, on the same weekend as MPC, which may limit the availability of local hotel rooms.  Follow the 35th MPC on Facebook for updates as they become available. The colloquium Facebook page is ...

Festive sauropod skull at the Mef In early January, I traveled to Trelew, Argentina, to examine fossils from the Cretaceous La Colonia and Eocene Laguna del Hunco floras held at the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (Mef) in Trelew, Argentina. These fossils included mosquito ferns ( Azolla ), which I am studying with colleagues María A. Gandolfo and Nathan Jud of Cornell University. Check out our recent abstract from the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting (2017) here .

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"