Category: science
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A new view of Cycads in deep time
Recently, the results of a long-lasting project on the phylogeny and evolution of the cycads have been published on the journal New Phytologist. This project started with part of my Doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich, and continued and concluded while I was working at the University of Vienna thanks to funding from the…
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A day in the Cretaceous of Patagonia
For today’s post, I want to show you an astounding piece of art I commissioned to Ida Kalsta, an extraordinary illustrator and artist. This represents an environment from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian, ~116 millions of years ago) of Patagonia, in particular the possible environment of the Ticoa harrisii fossiliferous layer in the Anfiteatro de Ticó…
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Forgotten formations: Anfiteatro de Ticó.
While doing some doomscrolling on Twitter, I came across this absolutely spectacular reconstruction of the Triassic Fremouw Formation by Liam Elward. The main focus of the piece are a couple of Lystrosaurus, but the attention to the flora of this formation is stunning. Many plants are known from the Fremouw formation, with many having been…
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How to represent uncertainty in phylogenies: RoguePlots to the rescue!
In my short research career I have become more and more intersted in how to appropriately represent uncertainty in phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetic trees based on morphology are often represented as a single (strict or majority) consensus tree, sometimes with branches labelled with branch support (bootstrap/jackknife percentages or ‘Decay index’). However, in many cases this form…
Mario Coiro 