Lab Note #6: Long Overdue Update

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the long silence - I was out of the country for much of July, and this month has been focused on a related project looking at Mazon Creek plant fossil preservation. I am now working with my committee to choose the best plant species for the experiments. We have also changed the project to focus on fewer species but with more replicates and time steps. The species we plan on using for the experiments fall into two groups - those with direct ancestors in the fossil record, primarily from the North Almont flora I wrote about earlier, and those with morphologically similar plants in the fossil record from Mazon Creek. The latter group has been the most difficult to plan, as two fossil groups from the assemblage - ancient true ferns and the extinct seed ferns - do not have direct descendants as the groups from North Almont have. We have chosen to use two modern ferns with similar foliage to their Carboniferous cousins and Cycad leaves as the analog for seed ferns. The current list is as follows: 

• Oak (Quercus, Fagaceae)
• Maple (Acer, Sapindaceae)
• Dogwood (Cornus, Cornaceae)
• Water Lily (Nuphar, Nymphaceae)
• Chestnut (Castanea, Fagaceae)
• Ginkgo (Ginkgoaceae)
• Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia, Cupressaceae) 
• Zamiaceae (Cycadales)
• Bracken (Pteridium, Dennstaedtiaceae)
• Angiopteris or Marratia (Marattiales, 'Tree Ferns') 
• Horse-tail (Equisetum, Equisetaceae)

I will be ordering the glassware this week, and the experiments should be starting the second week of September! I will be using as many 'natural' leaves as possible - those not grown in a green house. Luckily, many of the species are found in New England. The water lily, cycad, and tree fern foliage will come from the Marsh Botanic Gardens here at Yale. 

I'll be sure to keep you updated as things get rolling. Thank you once again to all my backers - this wouldn't be possible without you! As a (very) small token of my appreciation, here is a picture of a fossil sphenopsid from the Royal Ontario Museum's Mazon Creek Collection that I took last week. Sphenopsida is the order that encompasses horse tails, and dominated the Carboniferous (350-300 mya) understory. Enjoy!