Tag Archive for 'Leaf'

Leaf architecture of fossil (A, B, E) and comparable living (C, D, F-H) Dryobalanops species. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1002/ajb2.70036.

Paleontologists Find First Known Fossils of Living Tropical Tree Species

May 13, 2025 by News Staff

The fossils of the giant rainforest tree Dryobalanops rappa found in Brunei (officially Brunei Darussalam), a country on the large island of Borneo, are...

Jantungspermum gunnellii. Image credit: Spagnuolo et al., doi: 10.1086/730538.

Giant Fossil Seeds of Extinct Legume Species Found in Indonesian Borneo

Aug 15, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed three large (up to 7.2 cm in length) seeds and 43 fossil leaves of an ancient legume species in the Wahana Baratama coal...

Tomson et al. found that the interplay of macro and micromorphology in green wall plant species determines their particulate matter removal potential. Image credit: Tomson et al. 2024., doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170950.

Study: Green Walls Can Strip Pollution from Air, Some Plants Do It Better than Others

Mar 5, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Biologists at the University of Surrey have investigated inter-species variation in particulate matter accumulation, wash-off, and retention on ten broadleaf...

Sanfordiacaulis densifolia. Image credit: Tim Stonesifer.

Early Carboniferous Tree Species Had Unique Crown Shape

Feb 5, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Sanfordiacaulis densifolia is an extinct tree species that existed between 359 and 347 million years ago (Carboniferous period) in what is now New Brunswick,...

An artist’s reconstruction of Jeholornis prima with potential angiosperm arboreal herbivorous feeding ecology. Image credit: Wu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40311-z.

Early Cretaceous Bird Consumed Leaves of Magnolia-Like Flowering Plants

Aug 4, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Fossil plant phytoliths from the digestive tract of Jeholornis prima — an extinct species of bird that lived in what is now China during the Early...

Plant-herbivore interactions from the Cenozoic fossil record: (A) meta-network of plant-herbivore interactions, based on 10,714 damaged leaves from 21 fossil floras; colored bars represent the total interaction frequencies of host plants and herbivores; the ten most abundant plant orders are labeled; gray lines represent pair-wise interactions, with more frequent interactions being thicker and less transparent; (B) examples of damage types: (a and b) mines mainly produced by moths; (c and d) galls mainly produced by gall midges; (e-h) external foliage feeding including hole feeding, margin feeding, surface feeding, and skeletonization; (i) endophytic oviposition; (j) in situ preservation of armored scale insects. Scale bars - 10 mm. Image credit: Albrecht et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2300514120.

Fossil Leaves with Insect Imprints Reveal Drivers of Herbivore Functional Diversity during Cenozoic Era

Aug 2, 2023 by News Staff

Plant-eating insects are the most diverse group of multicellular organisms on Earth. The most discussed drivers of their inordinate taxonomic and functional...

Wataria stumps and Byttneriophyllum bed at a Miocene-period locality in Japan. The largest Wataria stump is an individual #1 with a trunk about 1.37-m in diameter. Image credit: Nishino et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37211-z.

Paleontologists Unearth Miocene Fossil Forest in Japan

Jul 24, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered an exceptionally well-preserved monodominant forest of the wood fossil-species Wataria parvipora at a Miocene locality...

Spiral arranged leaves can be identified at the shoot tip of Asteroxylon mackiei. Image credit: Turner et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adg4014.

407-Million-Year-Old Fossil Overturns Thinking on Evolution of Leafy Plants

Jun 20, 2023 by News Staff

Aerial parts of plants arrange their organs around stems, and this arrangement defines their structure. In most existing plant species, organs emerge at...

Nyctinasty is the movements involving circadian rhythmic folding at night and opening at daytime of plant leaves or leaflets. Image credit: Feng et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.12.043.

252-Million-Year-Old Insect-Damaged Leaves Reveal First Fossil Evidence of Foliar Nyctinasty

Feb 20, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have documented the first fossil evidence of foliar nyctinasty — the movements involving circadian rhythmic folding at night and...

Reconstruction of Late Maastrichtian (66 million years ago) paleoenvironment in North America, where a floodplain is roamed by dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex, Edmontosaurus and Triceratops. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Asteroid Gave Rise to Modern Neotropical Rainforests, Study Shows

Apr 2, 2021 by News Staff

About 66 million years ago (the end of the Cretaceous period), a 10-km-wide asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in...