Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bingcai Liu @bingcailiu.bsky.social · 11h

Excited to share our research on the evolution of fossil forests from the Devonian to Jurassic! By analyzing 38 global fossil forests, we explored key parameters to better understand how these fossil forests developed over time.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ea...

1 19 59

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 10d

Is it a lizard? Is it a snake? Maybe a 'false snake'?? As that's what its name means in Gaelic!

Hello to Breugnathair, a new fossil from the Jurassic of Skye with a curious mix of snake & lizard features, showing that early squamate evolution was complex

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fossil found on Skye is new species of fanged Jurassic reptile

Experts say the lizard-like creature, which has been given the Gaelic name Breugnathair elgolensis, had lived about 167 million years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

2 36 110

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Kenneth De Baets @djbirddanerd.bsky.social · 16d

Just in time for #FossilFriday 🦖 What are the big questions in #paleontology today?

dx.doi.org/10.1017/pab.2025.10042

Nearly 200 scientists worldwide came together to map where our field is headed. Here’s the story 👇

Identifying the Big Questions in paleontology: a community-driven project | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core

Identifying the Big Questions in paleontology: a community-driven project

dx.doi.org

1 20 26

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Catalina Pimiento 🆓🇵🇸 @pimientoc.bsky.social · Aug 11

Check out our perceptive on the Emerging uses of artificial intelligence in deep time biodiversity research www.nature.com/articles/s44...
#AI #paleontology

Emerging uses of artificial intelligence in deep time biodiversity research - Nature Reviews Biodiversity

This Perspective explores the existing and potential applications of artificial intelligence in deep time biodiversity research as well as offer guidelines on equitable and ethical use of artificial i...

www.nature.com

14 14

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Dr. Bethany Allen @bethanyjallen.bsky.social · Aug 8

Interested in inferring biodiversity in deep time? 📈📉 Check out our new R package DeepDiveR, led by @rebeccasaurus.bsky.social and now published in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social, helping you to prepare datasets for machine learning inference with DeepDive 🤿
doi.org/10.1111/2041...

A schematic explaining the analytical pipeline for using DeepDiveR and DeepDive. DeepDiveR helps users to convert their fossil data into the appropriate input format for DeepDive, as well as to prepare the configuration file describing the analysis settings. These two files can then be run in the Python library DeepDive. DeepDive uses the data to simulate diversity curves and sampling scenarios, and trains a model on the relationship between the two, allowing subsequent inference of the ‘true’ diversity curve from an incomplete and biased empirical fossil record.

21 37

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Florian Schnabel @mixedforests.bsky.social · Jul 25

🗞️New publication🗞️

How do neighbourhood diversity effects on tree growth change with climatic conditions?🌳🌲🔆🌧️

We adress this question in our new study in @natecoevo.nature.com led by Liting Zheng.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

/w @liting-zheng.bsky.social, Peter Reich & #TreeDivNet

Neighbourhood diversity increases tree growth in experimental forests more in wetter climates but not in wetter years - Nature Ecology & Evolution

How tree diversity effects on ecosystem functioning vary along climatic gradients is unclear. Here, analysing data from 15 experimental forest sites, the authors show that tree growth responses to nei...

www.nature.com

2 14 29

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · Jun 27

Revealing article, showing that there is a significant relation between the biomass of oceanic animals and their dynamics, including during extinction events, through the Phanerozoic Eon.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology #EvoBio #Macroecology

Comparison of biomass and biodiversity of animals across the Phanerozoic

5 18

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Will Gearty @willgearty.bsky.social · Jun 23

📢 deeptime 📦 v. 2.2.0 is now on #CRAN:

- geom_text_phylo() for adding labels to radial phylogenies 🏷️
- timescales updated to ICS 2024/12 🗓️
- compatibility with ggplot2 4.0.0 📈

Patch notes 👉 williamgearty.com/deeptime/news/

Docs 👉 williamgearty.com/deeptime/

#rstats #dataviz #geology #deeptime

13 36

Bingcai Liu @bingcailiu.bsky.social · Jun 15

The palaeogeographic evolution of microplates in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt from the perspective of Devonian plant.

Paleogeography of microcontinents in northeastern China in view of macroplant Leclercqia (Lycopsida) records during Middle to Late Devonian

Paleogeography of the microcontinents in northeastern China is essential to understanding tectonic and dynamic evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic…

www.sciencedirect.com

1

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · Jun 6

New Article: "Leaf venation network evolution across clades and scales" rdcu.be/epLNP

Evolution of leaf venation networks, from fewer, corrugated veins to high vein density and smoother loops. Herbivory as a potential driver of venation architectural changes.

31 94

Reposted by Bingcai Liu

Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · May 31

New Article: "Ordovician marine Charophyceae and insights into land plant derivations" rdcu.be/eoSkA

Marine Charophyceae fossils from the Upper Ordovician confirm that morphological innovations key to the evolution of terrestrial flora predate emergence of land plants.

3 26 63

Bingcai Liu @bingcailiu.bsky.social · Apr 24

Tree ferns formed the first forest on Earth.

2