#paleobotany

i just finished When the Earth was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance, a nonfiction book about the evolution of plants and the ways in which plants and animals have influenced each other throughout the earth's history written by Riley Black

i read another of Riley Black's books, The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, a few years ago when i chanced upon it at the library and could not put it down. so when i saw that she had written another book with a focus on paleobotany, a subject that intrigues me but that i am not intimately familiar with, i knew immediately i wanted to read it.

the book uses a series of vignettes from throughout the history of the earth in order to illustrate the evolving ways in which plants affect and are affected by the environment around them. these range from pivotal moments such as the origins of multicellularity and the dominance of angiosperms in the wake of the K-Pg extinction to the origins of famous fossils like the Petrified Forest and late Cretaceous amber to interactions small but familiar like the evolution of catnip or the role of bats as pollinators. the way these scenes are written is compelling, taking what an be gleaned from the fossil record and weaving it into an evocative narrative of the push and pull between plant and animal and re-framing plants as active players in the history of life instead of a backdrop against which animals act.

i feel that the conclusion of the book warrants special mention. starting from a framing of a trip to the Pando Aspen Clone, what appears to be a collection of trees that are, in truth, one singular organism the size of a forest, the conclusion looks at the diversity of ways in which plants live that defy our typical notions of how life is organized and then draws parallels to the author's experiences as a trans woman. the final message ends up being one of appreciating the vast diversity of life and seeking to understand ways of existing very different from our own, striking a hopeful tone that i found very affecting.

Extinct plants. Design in nature. 1908.

They changed the atmosphere, built soil, & created an atmosphere that allowed life to thrive on land. But plants were not the first life forms on Earth. Life began in the ocean with microbes over 3.5 billion years ago, while land plants appeared only around 470-500 mya. Around 500 mya, most of the Earth's surface was bare rock & dry soil. Life existed almost entirely in the oceans. Then, something amazing happened. The very first land plants were tiny moss-like organisms resembling liverworts. This land colonization was so important & created the first soil by breaking rock down. They absorbed CO₂, cooling the planet, and perhaps more importantly, the second plant on Earth, a type of algae called cyanobacteria, created Earth's breathable atmosphere.

Fuckin Hel, I request help from the paleo part of the science tumblr

The Paleobotanist side of paleo tumblr

I wanna know Basic shit that happened with them plants from the middle to late Cretaceous, but I have no idea where to start

I have little Latin under my belt, I think I have I’m good enough with English to read scientific shit in this god forsaken language, im fluent in Russian if there is something good to read in Russian about the topic,

I just want to know about COOL CRETACEOUS CONIFERS and Flowers and MAYBE BUGS if there is something about bugs,

BUT I HAVE NO CLUE HOW DO YOU ACADEMIC PEOPLE EVEN START TO LOOK FOR THIS INFO???

IM AN ART SCHOOL DROPOUT I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO LOOK FOR STUFF LIKE THIS

The World’s Oldest Tree 🌲 #shorts #shorts #naturefacts #facts #methusela...

This bristlecone pine tree was seeded around 2833 BCE, some 243 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. So Methuselah was already a teenager by that time. This year it turns 4,859 years old. It came from a perfectly ordinary bristlecone pine parent, likely one of the ancient trees in the same White Mountains ridge system. Nothing supernatural—just a seed that landed in the right crack of dolomite & then refused to die. Even now, it continues to produce cones. How could it do it? It lives in high elevations & wind-scoured ridges where there are fewer pests, pathogens, & competitors. The extremely poor, rocky soil produces slow growth, resulting in dense, resin-rich wood that resists decay. Its dry climate means fungi & rot organisms struggle to survive. Its exact location means reduced human disturbance; its location is kept secret.

Some paper mache models of prehistoric plants from northeastern China back in the Cretaceous.

Supposed to go with my Microraptor skull that decorates my hat