Paleobotany and Palynology Home

Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni, Visitors, and Volunteers

Paleobotany & Palynology Group Photo (January 26, 2010)

Back row: Fabiany Herrera, Qi Wang, Hongshan Wang, Terry Lott, David Jarzen, Steve Manchester

Front row: Paula Mejia, Aom (Nareerat) Boonchai, Hui Jia, Hao Wu, Jane Blanchard

Steven R. Manchester, Ph.D.

Curator, Division of Paleobotany

Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352 273-1935
Fax: 352 846-0287
Email: steven (add "@flmnh.ufl.edu" to end)

Research Interests and Curriculum Vitae

Nareerat Boonchai (Aom)

Visiting research scholar at FLMNH

Advisor: Dr. Steve Manchester

Ph.D. student (Paleontology and stratigraphy), Jilin University

Advisor: Prof. Sun Ge

E-mail: nboonchai@flmnh.ufl.edu, n_finix@yahoo.com

I am interested in biology and paleontology. I have done my master degree research on biodiversity of Cenozoic petrified wood in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeastern Thailand, supervised by Dr. Paul J. Grote at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT). I have done comparative anatomical structure of fossil wood with the modern wood to look at the diversity of ancient trees and interpret paleoenvironment in the study area. My current research here at Paleobotany of FLMNH is working on fossil leave cuticles of Lauraceae from Puryear sandpit, Tennessee and I also interested in studying fossil wood from Wyoming.
I have been worked for Museum of Petrified Wood and mineral resource since 2003, besides working on scientific researches; I like and enjoy working for museum exhibition, public relations, and foreign affairs as well.
Museum staffs and students here are very kind and friendly, especially Paleobotany team here. I very much appreciate in their warm welcome, kind helps, and suggestions in paleobotanical study.

David M. Jarzen, Ph.D.

Research Scientist
Division of Paleobotany and Palynology
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352 273-1933
Fax: 352 846-0287
Email: dmj (add "@flmnh.ufl.edu" to end)

DAVID M. JARZEN is a Research Scientist in Paleobotany and Palynology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he grew up in northern Ohio gaining an early interest in biology and natural history of the cool-temperate environment. He earned his B.S. degree in 1967 from Kent State University majoring in Biological Sciences, and two years later received his M.A. degree in Botany from the same institution. In 1973 he was awarded the Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Toronto.

His research interests in the nature of extant and fossil plant life, have provided extensive field work in all regions of Canada and the United States, as well as Europe, Zambia, Cameroon, Panama, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Fiji, and to several localities within Australia. The focus of his work incorporates a global view towards understanding the evolution of plant life during the Earth's history, with an emphasis on fossil floras recorded from the Tertiary of Florida and the Caribbean. His publications of scientific papers number over 240, including both professional papers and popular articles. Some of his photography and illustrations have been seen in Scientific American, The Owl Magazine, other popular publications, on the Internet, and in museum displays in Canada, Australia and the USA. His work has been incorporated in several radio and television productions including CBC's "Nature of Things" with David Suzuki, the PBS NOVA Series, the NHK (Japan) Series "The Miracle Planet", the National Film Board of Canada, the Discovery Channel and other North American cable networks.
His work has been recognised by his colleagues through election as President of the Canadian Association of Palynologists [CAP] (1979-1980), Secretary-Treasurer to the International Federation of Palynological Societies [IFPS] (1984-1988); Vice President of the IFPS (1992-1996), and from 1988-1996 has represented the Canadian Association of Palynologists as Councillor to the IFPS. He has served as President-Elect (2000-2001) to the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists. He was an invited Visiting Scholar to the Department of Geology & Mineralogy (1987-1988) of The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, and in 1991 and 1994 to the Botany Department of the same university. In 2005 he was invited to Australia once again, this time to work with colleagues at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Queensland.

David has been a member of 23 learned scientific societies, including the prestigious Explorer’s Club, as well as the honorary scientific society, Sigma Xi. He has served the scientific community and general public through many slide lectures, videos, CD ROMs, and popular publications. The Palynology and Paleobotany databases at the Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa, Canada) were designed and developed by David in co-operation with the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) and have been used as the hallmark for all collection databases at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

At the Florida Museum of Natural History (University of Florida) he completed the restructuring of the 250,000 specimens of the Paleobotany/Palynology Collections, including a 7,200 specimen collection of extant reference pollen slides, and has raised their standards for research and display to a par with other quality museums. While at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, (2002-2003), he enriched the cultural level of educational programs and introduced the gardens and the community to internationally respected speakers through his speakers bureau and lecture series. In 2003, David was elected as Fellow National to the Explores Club, and in 2005 he was elected Fellow of the Ohio Academy of Science. David is listed in American Men and Women of Science, Who’s Who in Ontario (Canada), Who’s Who in Canadian Science, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, as well as Who's Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. His extra-curricular activities include music that enhances the soul, nature photography, satirical writing, botanical illustration, and all aspects of natural history. With his best friend and wife, Susan, he explores the natural history of the south-eastern United States at every opportunity.

See Dr. Jarzen's Research Interests and Curriculum Vitae in PDF and HTML format.

Elizabeth A. Kowalski, Ph.D.

Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352 273-1933
Fax: 352 846-0287
Email: ekowalsk (add "@umich.edu" to end)
or kowalski (add "@flmnh.ufl.edu" to end)

MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Cenozoic paleobotany, paleoecology, paleoclimatology, paleobiogeography.
• The relationship between plants and climate, and how that can be used to determine terrestrial paleoclimate.
• The relationship between climate change and uplift, and how plants can be used to document paleoelevation change.
• Distribution of variability in plant leaf morphology due to climate and phylogeny.

Research Interests and Curriculum Vitae or Visit Dr. Kowalski at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ekowalsk

Terry A. Lott

Research Assistant

Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352 273-1933
Fax: 352 846-0287
Email: lott (add "@flmnh.ufl.edu" to end)

Research Interests and Duties

Ongoing Projects:

• Database compilation of fossil angiosperm plants, Jurassic thru Cenomanian, "Deep Time" Project.

• Database compilation of angiosperm cuticle (digital and characters) for North Florida Woodlands, and Neotropical Central America.

• Authored manuscripts (in preparation) dealing with fossil plants of the Pleistocene of Costa Rica, fossil legume flower of the Eocene of Tennessee, and foliar physiognomy of leaf litter in a North Florida Woodland.

• Plant Fossil Collections; Mid Continental United States.

Duties:

• Prepare and edit photographic and digital images for scientific papers, posters, presentations and surveys.

• Review and edit manuscripts.

• Maintain and order equipment, supplies and chemicals, for photography, imaging, laboratory and office spaces.

• Paleobotany Collection tours and numerous museum related symposia/paleofest.

• Assist: Numerous projects associated with visiting scholars, post-doctoral, graduate, undergraduate, and high school students dealing with character analysis of fossil and modern plants.

• Prediction of climate by foliar physiognomy; Eastern United States.

• Pollen counts for Gainesville Sun newspaper.

Hongshan Wang, Ph. D.

Collection Manager of Paleobotany/Palynology

Florida Museum of Natural History
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352 273-2107
Fax: 352 846-0287
Email: hwang@flmnh.ufl.edu

Research Interests and Curriculum Vitae

Qi Wang, Ph. D.

Visiting professor

Research Center for Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences

Photo courtesy of Dr. David Dilcher

FABIANY ALBERTO HERRERA TOLOSA

PhD Student - Biology Department
Florida Museum of Natural History
Paleobotany & Palynology Group
University of Florida
Gainesville, Fl, USA

Carlos Jaramillo’s Research Group
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Panama

Email: fherrera@flmnh.ufl.edu
Birth date: February 4, 1978
Birth place: Bucaramanga, Colombia

Collecting Paleocene fossil leaves in Colombia

My research focuses on the evolutionary origin of the South American rainforests by looking at plant macrofossils. I am interested to know when and how the tropical rainforests appeared in the Neotropics, what mechanisms have produced the high species diversity and the characteristic family composition. I want to reconstruct the paleoclimatic, paleoecological and paleobiogeographical conditions under which the ancient Neotropical rainforest flourished, particularly during the Late Cretaceous, Paleogene and Middle Miocene. I am also interested on the systematic and taxonomy of Neotropical fossil plants.

Wing, S.L., Herrera, F., Jaramillo, C., Gomez, C., Wilf, P., and Labandeira, C.C. 2009. Late Paleocene fossils from the Cerrejón Formation, Colombia, are the earliest record of Neotropical Rainforest. PNAS 106: 18627-18632.

See my full Curriculum Vitae

Paula Mejia-Velasquez

Ph.D. student, Department of Botany
Advisor: Dr. Steve Manchester

Paula Mejia-Velasquez

I am interested in determining the floristic patterns of angiosperms and other groups of plants on tropical latitudes during the early radiation of angiosperms using palynology (Lower and Mid Cretaceous), and to infer how those patterns may be related to climate.

For my research I will analyze palynological samples from several low latitude sites in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Surinam, Cameroon, Nigeria and Egypt. I plan to reconstruct the floristic composition of each site and use that floristic composition as a proxy to infer the dominant climatic conditions of each site. Then I plan to use the resulting climatic information to determine the main climatic patterns on the tropics during the unparallel diversification of angiosperms. The results of my research will provide information of the environmental and floristic conditions of tropical latitudes during the fast diversification of flowering plants. This will provide tools to better understand angiosperm evolution: how and under which conditions early angiosperms radiated and diversified in the tropics.

Alumni

Judy Chen, Ph. D., 2009

Advisor: Dr. Steven Manchester

jchen(add "@botany.ufl.edu" to end)

Research: Phylogeny of the grape family (Vitaceae) based on morphology. I am investigating features of flower, fruit, stem, pollen, seeds, and development as they are distributed among modern and fossil species of Vitaceae to gain an improved understanding of phylogeny and improved classification of this family which is now widely distributed in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

In the past few years my work in paleobotany has included a review of the fossil seed record of water lilies (Nymphaeceae) with emphasis on a new species we recovered from the Eocene of Shandong Province, Northeastern China (Chen et al, 2004), and I have made a palynological investigations of the Middle Eocene Huadian flora of Jilin Province, Northeastern China using micromanipulation techniques to study isolated fossil pollen grains by both Scanning Electron and Light microscopy.

Iju Chen and Steven R. Manchester. 2007. Seed morphology of modern and fossil Ampelocissus (Vitaceae) and implications for phytogeography. Am. J. Bot., 94: 1534-1553.

Steven R. Manchester and Iju Chen. 2006. Tetracentron Fruits from the Miocene of Western North America. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 167(3): 601-605.

Iju Chen, Steven R. Manchester, and Zhiduan Chen. 2004. Anatomically preserved seeds of Nuphar (Nymphaeaceae) from the Early Eocene of Wutu, Shandong Province, China. American Journal of Botany 91: 1265-1272.

Mohammed Bendahmane, Judit Szécsi, Iju Chen, R. Howard Berg, and Roger N. Beachy. 2002. Characterization of mutant tobacco mosaic virus coat protein that interferes with virus cell-to-cell movement. PNAS 99: 3645-3650.

David L. Dilcher, Ph.D., NAS

Graduate Research Professor

[Retired]

Address: 525 N.E. Boulevard

Gainesville, FL 32601-5466, U.S.A.

Email: paleoleo@yahoo.com

Research Interests and Curriculum Vitae

Felipe De La Parra

Master of Science in Geology

Advisor: Dr. David Dilcher

My interests are in the fields of Paleobiology and Paleoecology, with emphasis in Paleobotany. I am interested in biotic diversity, its causes and how it relates to ecological stability. I am also interested in how vegetation communities have responded to environmental crises in the present and geological past. I would like to approach these questions using paleobiological information by applying mathematical and statistical methods and by constructing theoretical models to understand the dynamics of the vegetal communities in the geological past. I think this information can help us to understand modern communities and their response to the present environmental presures.

I’m planning to work in several questions:

• Taxonomic rates in plants and its measurement it in the fossil record.
• The effect of sampling and incompleteness of the fossil record in the measure of taxonomic rates.
• Construction and use of confidence intervals on discrete sampling schemes.
• Quantitative analysis of palynological information.
• Use of geometric morphometrics in palynomorphs.
• Mass extinction events and their evolutionary consequences.
• The ecological role of rare species in vegetation communities.
• Development and construction of strong biostratigraphic frameworks.
• Measurement of diversity in the fossil record.
• Testing hypothesis about plant diversification patterns in the tropics.
• Evaluate the response of the vegetation to climate changes.
• Modeling and selectivity of extinction and origination episodes.
• Time series analysis and cyclostratigraphy in continental sediments.

Current address:

Lider Grupo Bioestratigrafia
Instituto Colombiano del Petroleo
Km 7 via Piedecuesta
Edificio 10 piso 3, Colombia

Elizabeth O'leary

Master of Science, Department of Botany
Advisor: Dr. Steve Manchester

Fossil history of winged fruits.

Shusheng Hu, PH.D.
Dissertation (abstract):

PALYNOMORPHS AND SELECTED MESOFOSSILS FROM THE CRETACEOUS DAKOTA FORMATION, MINNESOTA, USA

The middle cenomanian palynomorphs and selected mesofossils from the Dakota Formation of south central Minnesota were investigated. A total of 218 of palynomorphs were recovered. Terrestrial palynomorphs include 41 types of angiosperm pollen in which six types are described as new species, 42 types of gymnosperm pollen, and 78 types of spores of fern and fern allies. Spores of fern and fern allies are most diverse among the terrestrial palynomorphs. Other palynomorphs include two types of megaspores, ten types of algal spores and colonies, seven types of fungal spores and fruiting body, 18 types of dinoflagellate cysts, and 20 types of acritachs. Based upon the occurrence of Artiopollis indivisus, Balmeisporites glenelgensis, Cicatricosisporites crassiterminatus, Dictyophyllidites impensus, and Nyssapollenites sp., the age of the Cretaceous sediments exposed in south central Minnesota is probably middle Cenomanian. Pollen analysis indicates that wind-pollinated angiosperms probably were not dominant around coastal lakes, swamps, and the inland meandering river areas during middle Cenomanian. There are distinct angiosperm species gradients from coastal areas to inland meandering river areas. Also the coastal lake areas appear to have higher angiosperm diversity than that in the inland meandering river areas. The characteristic vegetational elements of the coastal swamps during middle Cenomanian were diverse angiosperms, dominant ferns and fern allies, and a relative low abundance of gymnosperms. The Trochodendrales and Buxales of the eudicots, which were not recovered from leaf fossil records, probably were present during middle Cenomanian based upon the angiosperm pollen records. Two new marattioid ferns, Goolangia minnesotensis Hu, Dilcher, H. Schneid. et Jarzen gen. et sp. nov. and Mesozoisynangia trilobus Hu, Dilcher, H. Schneid. et Jarzen gen. et sp. nov., are described based on charcoalified isolated sporangia and synangia. These fossils provide evidence for the existence of marattioid ferns during the mid-Cretaceous in North America and give the first unequivocal documentation of the Marattiaceae in post Jurassic times. Spores of Goolangia minnesotensis are comparable with the dispersed spore Dictyophyllidites impensus, which was distributed from Arizona to Alberta in west central North America during middle Cenomanian.

Mohamed I.A. Ibrahim, Ph.D

Visiting Scientist, Fulbright Fellowship
Division of Paleobotany and Palynology
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Fax: 352-392-2539
Email: mibrahim (add "@flmnh.ufl.edu" to end)

Mohamed Ibrahim is a visiting scientist and Fulbright Grantee at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida. He is a Professor of Palynology and Applied micropaleontology at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science of the Alexandria University, Egypt. He obtained his Ph.D in palynology and micropaleontology in 1993 from the Alexandria University and the Technical University of Berlin through a combined channel program. He has authored more than thirty research articles covered the palynology, micropaleontology and paleoecolgy of Egypt, Libya and Qatar. He worked as a part time palynostratigraphic consultant for GEOEX-Egypt (1994-1996). He was the national coordinator and member of the IGCP 831 "South Atlantic Mesozoic Correlation". He is a member in many geologic and biostratigraphic societies as AASP, BMS, GSE and ESQUA. In 1998, his department awarded the Sultan Qaboos Prize for environmental achievement. In 2003, he awarded the Alexandria University Scientific Prize in Geological Sciences and in 2004, he awarded the Egypt State Prize in Geological Science.

See Dr. Ibrahim's Research Interests, list of publication and Curriculum Vitae.

Mihai E. Popa

popa@flmnh.ufl.edu

"The Middle Cretaceous floras of USA and Romania: different lands, similar floras"

For the first, scientific aim, a comparison between the Mid-Cretaceous floras of USA and Romania is proposed, focusing on the conifer assemblages and on the entire floras as a whole, as well. These floras existed between 120 and 90 million years ago, during the time interval known in Geology as the Aptian, Albian, Cenomanian and Turonian ages. They are very interesting for several reasons: they are the first, ancestral representatives of the Tertiary and modern floras and they witnessed the rise, diversification and dominance of angiosperms. For Romania, this study is very important as almost no research was done on floras of this age, with very few exceptions (Givulescu et al., 1980, 1986) so a serious knowledge gap exists in this case. For the USA, the project is interesting because the conifer assemblages of this age have not been investigated in detail, the accent being put on the study of the coeval angiosperms.

For the second, educational aim, the project is very important for Romania, as it can contribute to the substantial improvement of the didactic activity for various levels, BSc, MSc or even PhD level, in Geology and Palaeontology, after returning from the States. In Romania, the need for a new didactic attitude, using new approaches, new data, and improved educational discourse that combines the research and education can be satisfied only after a serious, a profound experience of the American educational system, in an American university.

More information

Bainian Sun
Professor
Department of Geology
Lanzhou University

Xin Wang

Dakota Formation is bonanza for paleobotany. It yielded not only varieties of meagfossils, microfossils and mesofossils, but also yielded many exceptionally well preserved fossils --- CYTOPLASM FOSSILS. This is the major discovery in my PhD program. The preservation is somehow related to a frequently seen but long ignored phenomenon --- lightning. It is expected more interesting progresses to be made soon. If you had any interest in this kind of fossil, please hit this link to check whether my interpretation is reasonable or not.
http://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0040816604000473

Yongdong Wang (Y.D. WANG)

"Comparative anatomy and fine structure of the representative Mesozoic plants"

The ongoing research project here in the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida entitled "Comparative anatomy and fine structure of the representative Mesozoic plants" has three parts: 1) Further study of the structurally preserved fossil wood from the Late Jurassic in Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China. It is expected to examine the wood anatomy so as to determine the predominately trees and their systematic relationships. The taphonomy of fossil tree deposition , the ecology of ancient forest and palaeoclomate implications are being investigated using multiple approaches. 2). Investigations of some reproductive material from the Early Cretaceous Dakota Formation of Northern America, including fertile structures, fructifications and fruits . 3). Fine structures and anatomy of the Early Jurassic plants from southern China, including a couple of genera belonging to three types of plants (ferns, bennettitaleans and ginkgoaleans). Most of preliminary results have already been fulfilled in China. The current work will emphasis on further comparison with relevant fossil plants in Northern America and related extant plants so as to imply their evolutionary and phylogenetic significances. All above researches will be guided by the academic thoughts of "fossil plant biology" as well as "fine structure and whole-plant reconstruction". Several new and advanced methods (such as SEM, TEM and ultra-sections, form-function analysis and growth habitat, etc) will be utilized for revealing the relationships of structures, evolution and environmental implications of the represented Mesozoic plants.

More information

Updated February 3, 2010