Ep. 300 - Reconstructing a Cretaceous Flora

In Defense of Plants Podcast

In Defense of Plants

Botany, Natural Sciences, Ecology, Nature, Plants, Science

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2021

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imagine being able to travel back 120 million years to the Early Cretaceous and scoop up handfuls of the forest floor. The amount you would discover in that material would be mind blowing and, amazingly, this is essentially what my guest gets to do. Dr. Fabiany Herrera is a paleobotanist based at the Chicago Botanic Garden who is currently helping reconstruct the flora of an ancient Mongolian swamp. Mongolia is well known for its dinosaur fossils, but what Dr. Herrera and his colleagues are uncovering is amazingly preserved evidence of the ecosystem that once support them. From resolving relationships among extant gymnosperms to describing new taxa, there seems to be no end to the information packed away in these amazing fossils. Join us as we catch a glimpse of an Early Cretaceous flora. This podcast was produced in part by Jerome, Brian, Melody, Azomonas, Ellie, University Greens, Cynthia, John, Ashley, Peter, Cathrine, Melvin, OrangeJulian, Porter, Grif, Jules, Joan, Les, Marabeth, Ali, Margaret, Southside Plants, Robert, Keiko, Bryce, Brittany, Helen, Amanda, Mikey, Rhiannon, Michelle, Kate, German, Joerg, Alejandra, Cathy, Jordan, Judy, Steve, Kae, Carole, Mr. Keith Santner, Dana, Chloe, Aaron, Sara, Kenned, Vaibhav, Kendall, Christina, Brett, Jocelyn, Kathleen, Ethan, Kaylee, Runaway Goldfish, Ryan, Donica, Chris, Shamora, Alana, Laura, Alice, Sarah, Rachel, Joanna, Griff, Philip, Paul, Matthew, Clark, Bobby, Kate, Steven, Brittney, McMansion Hell, Joey, Catherine, Brandon, Hall, Vegreville Creek and Wetlands Fund, Kevin, Oliver, John, Johansson, Christina, Jared, Hannah, Katy Pye, Brandon, Gwen, Carly, Stephen, Botanical Tours, Moonwort Studios, Liba, Mohsin Kazmi Takes Pictures, doeg, Clifton, Stephanie, Benjamin, Eli, Rachael, Plant By Design, Philip, Brent, Ron, Tim, Homestead Brooklyn, Brodie, Kevin, Sophia, Mark, Rens, Bendix, Irene, Holly, Caitlin, Manuel, Jennifer, Sara, and Margie.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to the In Defense of Plants podcast, the official podcast of
0:04.7	Indefensiveplants.com.
0:06.3	What's up? This is your host, Matt. Welcome to the show. How's everyone doing this week?
0:10.7	Today we're going back to the Cretaceous, specifically the early Cretaceous, about 100 to 120 million
0:16.9	years ago, because my guest is really interested in improving the knowledge about the timing
0:21.2	of events in seed plant composition and evolution. Now, seed plants, of course, does not just
0:27.0	mean angiosperms. In fact, my guest today is very interested in fossil gymnosperms. Joining us from
0:33.0	the Chicago Botanic Garden is Dr. Fabiani Herrera, and the fossil plants that he looks at will blow your
0:38.9	mind. I'm used to seeing compression fossils or just impressions made by plant fossils, but what Dr.
0:44.7	Herrera looks at almost is in living form. Through a really complex fossilization process,
0:50.2	he can still articulate some of these structures. They can still be rehydrated. It's essentially
0:55.3	just plant carbon that's been, I don't know, carbonized. I'll let him describe it to you, because this
0:59.8	is far out of my wheelhouse. But he is expanding the family trees for so many interesting groups
1:05.2	of plants, including the ginkos. We know only one representative today. And due to work of people
1:10.0	like Dr. Herrera, we now know that this was a much larger family of plants, experimenting with some really interesting morphology.
1:17.6	Dr. Herrera's work just goes to show you how much we still have to learn about this time period, and the evolutionary history of families that we still know and love today.
1:25.6	So I don't want to keep you from it any longer.
1:27.6	Without further ado, here is my conversation with Dr. Herrera. I hope you enjoy.
1:49.6	All right, Dr. Fabiani Herrera, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
1:51.4	I'm so excited to talk with you today.
1:55.6	So how about we start off by telling everyone a little bit about who you are and what it is you do?
1:58.4	Oh, man, thank you so much for having me.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from In Defense of Plants, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of In Defense of Plants and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.