The Birth of the Modern World

Our first publication from the project is now out in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

We focused on one of the three groups we are interested in, the enigmatic Gnetales, and reviewed our knowledge and understanding of this group. We also point to convergence of evidence (consilience) as the path forward to solve some of the issues still surrounding their relationship and macroevolutionary dynamics: only combining evidence from disparate field such as developmental genetics, molecular evolution, paleobotany, and phylogenetics we can arrive to a more accurate answer to our questions.

Here is a link to the article, which is Open Access. Feel free to read and share!

As usual every four years, the 11th European Paleobotany and Palynology Conference was held this year in Stockholm, Sweden. This was the first large paleobotanical conference in person since the last EPPC in Dublin back in 2018, and a great opportunity to share ideas and reconnect with colleagues and collaborators.

The Vienna Paleobotany group was present in full force at this conference. We presented two talks and two posters, and were involved in other five presentations, with our prof. Leyla Seyfullah co-organising one of the Symposia (“Amber palaeobotany: What did the forests look like for all the fossil invertebrates?“).

Exciting new cycad cone from Andres Elgorriaga and now continuing with cycads we have @Lepidodendron! #EPPC2022 pic.twitter.com/5wHMWfrMu5

— Sandy Hetherington (@Sandy_Heth) June 21, 2022

Moreover, the meeting gave us the occasion to consolidate our collaborations for our Lise Meitner Project, especially on one particular group of plants. Expect more exciting updates soon on the mysterious Gnetales!

Vienna palaeobotastists can find Ephedra even in Stockholm! #Gnelates #EPPC2022 pic.twitter.com/WVARbBzJRU

— Mario Coiro, Fossil Record Defender. (@Lepidodendron) June 19, 2022

The FWF funded Lise Meitner Project “The Birth of the Modern World” has officially started!
You will find all the updates on our work on this page soon.