Alexis Rastier 🌿

Pterocoma pennata, a comatulid ("feather star") from the Jurassic of Germany

Ginkgoites huttoni, a ginkgo from the Jurassic of England.

Cymatophlebia longialata, a dragonfly from the Jurassic of Germany

Pterodactylus antiquus, a pterosaur from the Jurassic of Germany.

Look at all these beautiful flattened Jurassic friends! ⛏️🤓 All from the Paläontologisches Museum München public exhibit -names in alt-text #fossil #paleontology #paleobotany

An impression of a fossil leaf showing details of the veination. The apical and lower parts of the leaf are missing

A piece of Glossopteris leaf from the late Permian of Antarctica ~260 million years old 🌳⛏️. Broken but showing nice detail of the veination. Glossopterids are seed plants that were found on all of today's southern continents during the Permian. Happy #FossilFriday! #paleobotany #botany

A thin section of the plant Asteroxylon mackiei from the Rhynie chert, showing cellular preservation.

6 / 23 A new specimen of Prototaxites from the Rhynie chert provided both of these things! The Rhynie chert is an early Devonian (410 million years old) from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and it is famous for the exquisite quality of its preservation.

Detail of the wood tissue in a fossil stem of Sigillaria seen under the microscope. It shows files of conducting cells and rays.

Today's lycopsids ("clubmosses") are small plants and do not produce wood but some of their Paleozoic relatives did! This is a detail of the wood cells in a stem of Sigillaria from the Carboniferous of the USA 🔬🌿⛏️ Happy #FossilFriday!
#paleobotany #botany

Researcher Simon Beurel in his office, holding one of the amber inclusions he studied.

When #amber becomes a time machine! ⏳

Fossilised resin can preserve insects and #plants for millions of years. These inclusions act as time capsules of Earth’s history – and as valuable sources of knowledge for #research. 🧵 (1/3)

#science #sciencenews

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below!
Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

Francis Hallé, une figure majeure de la botanique tropicale et de la Guyane | Herbier de Guyane L’Herbier IRD de Guyane salue la mémoire de Francis Hallé, botaniste et biologiste dont le décès, survenu le 31 décembre 2025, marque la disparition d’une figure majeure de l’étude des forêts tropical...

herbier-guyane.ird.fr/francis-hall...

Who’s ever seen a Rhynie Chert fossil like this? A Rhynia prepared by the late David Edwards, recently returned to us by his family.

Book front cover with illustrations of fern leaves and the title: Ferns, lessons in survival from Earth’s most adaptable plants Written by: Fat-Wei Li and Jacob S. Suissa Illustrated by Laura Silburn

Looking for a new 📕 to read about plants??
I highly recommend the brilliant book ‘Ferns, Lessons in survival from Earth’s most adaptable plants’
Written by @fernway.bsky.social and Jacob Suissa with amazing illustrations by Laura Silburn
🌿 #FernFriday 🌿

Denglongia and another stem in the sediment/Archaeopteris leaf/Section in Callixylon root /Section in Denglongia stem

New paper in press on a Late Devonian fossil plant assemblage from Australia, with lycopsids (Leptophloeum), cladoxylopsids (Denglongia), and progymnosperm (Archaeopteris/Callixylon) remains 🌿⛏️
#paleobotany #FossilFriday
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

I'm resharing in English the very sad news of the passing of French botanist Francis Hallé, specialist of tropical #forests and #tree architecture. You can find more about his life and career (and see some of his amazing drawings) here: www.foretprimaire-francishalle.org/en/who-is-fr...

Photo of a long horizontal fossil trunk that is partly broken up and laying in sandstone. A person in a bright red coat is standing at the other end of the trunk from the photographer. Photo by P Ryberg.

A doubly old 'Christmas tree' this #FossilFriday! This was taken on Dec. 23 2010 during my 1st trip to Antarctica & shows a large fossil tree from the Triassic, 240 million years ago. The locality is high in the Transantarctic Mountains, above the Antarctic icesheet 🌿⛏️🏔️ Happy holidays!
#paleobotany

Antarctic fossils show new evidence of rootsprouting in extinct trees New research by Anne-Laure Decombeix at AMAP Lab in Montpellier, France, and Rudolph Serbet at the University of Kansas, USA. The image above shows the surface of a polished block of fossil peat fr…

Check this blog post on our research on root sprouting in Permian trees here: plantlifebelowground.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/a... And check also the other posts, this is a great blog for people interested in #botany in general and plant life belowground in particular! 🌱🌳 #paleobotany #fossil #scicomm

Reappraisal of Pseudobornia ursina Nathorst: Implications for the evolution and systematics of Paleozoic sphenophytes AbstractBackground and Aims. Sphenophytes, now restricted to Equisetum, were more diverse during the Paleozoic, particularly within Carboniferous coal swam

#Paleobotany #Botany #Ferns #Devonian Here is our new accepted paper in Annals of Botany dedicated to the early evolution of Sphenopsids with a new morphological interpretation of Pseudobornia ursina Nathorst from the uppermost Famennian of Bjørnøya 🌿🌱: academic.oup.com/aob/article/...

Close up of a section in a fossil plant with preserved tissues, showing details of a vascular byndle with xylem (conducting) cells

Happy #FossilFriday from this smiling fossil bundle of vascular tissues! It belongs to a cladoxylopsid, an extinct group related to today's spenopsids (horsetails) & ferns 🌿⛏️ This specimen comes from Southern France & dates from the early Carboniferous, about 350 million years ago. #paleobotany

Thanks Chris! These plants are truly fascinating to study, even if they can be quite challenging to fully understand.

#AMAPwebinar December 4th, 10:30 (CET) -Save the date -
Witold PODLESJK, postdoctoral researcher, presents "Impact of disturbances on the relative stability of central African forest types"
amap.cirad.fr/fr/edit-even...

#Paleobotany #Devonian #Fern
Last week, I attended the EMBO workshop in Vienna on early land plants and terrestrialisation.
There, I presented my research on rhacophytalean evolution, focusing on a reappraisal of the genus Cephalopteris from the latest Famennian of Bjørnøya. 🌿🌿

Back at Synchrotron Soleil for a few hours ☀️ There's a tiny 360 million year old fossil plant on this photo, and it's going to spend the night receiving X-rays to image in detail some of its structure. Some very cool results coming up in 2026! 🥳🌿⛏️ #paleobotany

Strobili (reproductive cones) and microphylls (proto-leaves) of Selaginella involvens.

A #fernFriday friend this week. Selaginella involvens, a sub tropical lycophyte from South east Asia #BritishFernSociety #BPS #RBGE

Brilliant first day of the @embo.org Plant Evolution Workshop!!

Sigillaria approximata tracheids in transverse section from proximal and distal in the trunk.

Arborescent lycopsid establishment and growth

Michael P. D'Antonio and Boyce

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

PhD César Leblanc YouTube video by César Leblanc

#AMAPDefense
"Artificial intelligence for biodiversity modeling: from predicting plant species assemblages to understanding and mapping habitats" by César LEBLANC on 28 November 2025 at 2:30 pm CET at Amphi Jacques Alliot, CIRAD - Campus Lavalette
visio : www.youtube.com/live/joGCkJS...

Cross sections of a Vertebraria root emitting a non-Vertebraria lateral interpreted as the stem of a sucker shoot.

Production of root suckers in #Glossopteridales from the late Permian of #Antarctica

New #AJB research by Anne-Laure Decombeix & Rudolph Serbet

doi.org/10.1002/ajb2...

#plantscience #glossopterids #paleobotany #fossils #FossilFriday

a figure showing a life restoration of an adult oxroadia, which has many sinuous green stem branching across the ground, and two smaller diagrams of a juvenile plant and a close up of the rooting system.

Congratulations to @jeremywyman.bsky.social et al 2025 for the publication of their Oxroadia paper! And thanks for bringing me onboard to do some restorations of this relative of Lepidodendron and Isoëtes from the Carboniferous of Scotland.
academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...
#FossilFriday #paleobotany

Left, a zoomed out image of the habit of the green branching lycophytes Oxroadia. Right, a zoomed in image of the highly branched rooting system

Huge congratulations @jeremywyman.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social for publishing the results of your masters thesis @annbot.bsky.social
The work includes a new reconstruction of the Carboniferous isoetalean Oxroadia by the brilliant @palaeojules.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Convergent evolution of the developmental anatomy of leaf abscission: evidence from the arboreous lycopsid Sigillaria
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

my new #sciart for @chistinesd.bsky.social: her research in @newphyt.bsky.social reveals arbuscular mycorrhizae in the stem of the early plant Aglaophyton from 407 million years ago, showing that fungal-plant symbioses are as old as the earliest soils. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We have a new Dr in #paleobotany! Congratulations to @thibault-durieux.bsky.social who successfully passed his viva. It was a great journey & he made the advising job very easy for
@petermoonlight.bsky.social, Carla Harper and I. Big thanks to the examiners Jenny McElwain & @sandyheth.bsky.social!

Bright red arils on a green yew branch

Yellow sporangia on a green fern leaf

Fall colours that are not angiosperm leaves 🤓🌲🌿
#botany