Mario Coiro
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lepidodendron.bsky.social
Mario Coiro
@lepidodendron.bsky.social
(Palaeo)Botanist at Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt. #Cycads, early #Angiosperms, all sorts of #Leaves. Patron of #plantpaleoart. Ronin. Also food, beer, music, boardgames. He/Him. Opinions are my own.
mariocoiro.blog
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last week my latest paper on #cycads came out.
The article deals with the idea of cycads as "living #fossils", but what does this mean exactly, and what did we actually test? A thread for #FossilFriday!
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Disparity of cycad leaves dispels the living fossil metaphor - Communications Biology
An analysis of leaf disparity through time in cycads shows that this group has a dynamic and expanding morphological diversity until the present, and thus does not fit the ‘living fossil’ hypothesis o...
www.nature.com
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Hello from Stuttgart! Never been to the SMNS before but it's a lovely museum with amazing collections. Right now they have a temporary exhibit on Triassic life, featuring Mirasaura. @stephanspiekman.bsky.social showed me round.. Amazing fossils!
January 28, 2026 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
New paper showing clustering of the many traits across reproductive strategies of angiosperms. Lots of interesting discussions that gave raise to this piece. But only possible thanks to the hard work of Andrew Helmstetter, Sylvain Glémin, and Jos Käfer.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
An angiosperm‐wide perspective on reproductive strategies and floral traits
Flowering plants have many modes of sexual reproduction, notably varying from selfing to outcrossing, and from bisexual flowers to individuals with separate sexes (dioecy). These reproductive modes ...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 26, 2026 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Job opportunity!

Research Assistant / Research Associate in Molecular Physiology

Fixed term

Closes on Wednesday 28 January 2026

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

#PlantSci #PlantSciJobs
January 26, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Big fan of how the palaeo-flora was displayed
January 26, 2026 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
♻️🆓: Anatomical insights into the vascular layout of the barley rachis: implications for transport and spikelet connection
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

#PlantScience
Anatomical insights into the vascular layout of the barley rachis: implications for transport and spikelet connection
AbstractBackground and Aims. Vascular patterning is intimately related to plant form and function. Here, using barley (Hordeum vulgare) as a model, we stud
doi.org
January 20, 2026 at 7:17 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
I'm hiring postdoc in my lab to work on temporal dynamics of sorghum root microbiome assembly! This position is funded by the Moore Foundation through UGA, and would be perfect for someone finishing up their PhD this spring. Details here: chunglab.franklinresearch.uga.edu/join-lab
January 19, 2026 at 9:13 AM
This is an incredibly useful read! How I’m learning to navigate academia as someone with ADHD www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Client Challenge
www.nature.com
January 14, 2026 at 8:20 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Writers in Residence scheme with Botanic Gardens of Sydney - $15000 for 3 months for Australian writers. Sydney, Mount Tomah or Mount Annan.
Writers in Residence: Expressions of Interest | Botanic Gardens of Sydney
We're offering two Australian writers the chance to work with the Gardens for three months. Applications close at 5pm on Tuesday 27 January 2026.
www.botanicgardens.org.au
January 13, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
An Apatosaurus meanders through a lush glade in the ancient Morrison.

#sciart #paleoart
January 10, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
The USA can withdraw from @ipbes.net but, IPBES Chair @davidobura.bsky.social observes, “unfortunately, we cannot withdraw from the fact that more than 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.” 😞😠
“We cannot withdraw from the fact that over 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.”

IPBES remains committed to its mandate to provide the most credible science and evidence about biodiversity to all decision makers and actors.

@davidobura.bsky.social , @ipbes.net Chair
January 8, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
After last year's successful refresh of the BES Reproducible Code guide (www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/...), this year we're going to refresh the Data Management guide (www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/...). Exciting! See below for how to get involved...
www.britishecologicalsociety.org
January 7, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Still time to apply for this PhD studentship on evolution and environmental changes in Polystira!
blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/c...
CR2026_28 – Crocus DLA
blogs.reading.ac.uk
January 7, 2026 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
JOB KLAXON! The @nhm-london.bsky.social is recruiting a micro-CT specialist! jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
CT Data and Micro CT Specialist :South Kensington
jobs.nhm.ac.uk
December 23, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
For the very first #FossilFriday & #FernFriday of 2026, the leaf of a #fern that was growing in what is now southern France at the end of the Carboniferous, ~300 million year ago 🌿⛏️
#paleobotany #botany
January 2, 2026 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
I'm very sad to say William Bond, of the University of Cape Town & Fellow of the Royal Society (@royalsociety.org ), has passed away. It is a great loss. He was an enthusiastic ecologist and a critical thinker. I learned a lot, and I still had a lot to learn from him. RIP. 😢

🧪🌎🔥🌿🌳🪴🌐 #PlantScience
December 4, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Are you familiar with the @palaeoverse.bsky.social Lecture Series?

Check out our YouTube Channel for lectures from community experts on method development and application in Palaeontology:

www.youtube.com/@ThePalaeove...

We will be announcing the next set of lectures in the New Year, stay tuned!
Palaeoverse
Palaeoverse (https://palaeoverse.org) is an organisation that aims to bring the palaeobiology community together to share resources, work toward data standards, and improve reproducibility in palaeobi...
www.youtube.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Pas de photo pour ce #FossilFriday mais pour les francophones vous pouvez m'écouter parler un peu de plantes fossiles pour la chronique Micro Labo de Radio Clapas 🌿⛏️
www.radioclapas.fr/portfolio/mi...
Micro Labo - Radio clapas
www.radioclapas.fr
December 19, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
📣 #Forschungsnews: Winzige Archive – Stoffwechsel-Moleküle speichern Urzeitwelt 🦴🌍
Forschende haben erstmals durch die Analyse kleinster Stoffwechselprodukte – sogenannte Metaboliten – in Tierfossilien die Umwelt früher Menschen entschlüsselt.
👉 https://sgn.one/h7n

📷 Bromage, Bin Hu; Schrenk
December 19, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
After illustrating quite a few ferns, I've now moved on to cycads! Here are some examples of Jurassic cycad morphology. With great thanks to @lepidodendron.bsky.social for his insightful blog post about cycads for #paleoart!
#paleobotany #cycad
December 18, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
And if you need more prehistoric tales as the year turns over, When the Earth Was Green came out just this year and expands the story.
When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
bookshop.org
December 18, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
I love that the online copy for Tyrant Lizard Queen says “from the author of the beloved The Last Days of the Dinosaurs” right at the top. I think it is, which is pretty amazing for a story about one of the worst times on our planet.
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World
An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World
bookshop.org
December 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
An excellent article on plant paleoart, its history, its importance in fighting plant blindness, and how we can further the field as a whole! Congrats to @pepecarrion.bsky.social and coauthors!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Plants in the shadows: Bridging the gap in paleoecology and paleoart
Paleoart, long considered peripheral to paleoscience, has become a powerful medium for visualizing extinct life and landscapes. Yet its historical tra…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
doi.org/10.1016/j.hi...

The Mismeasure of Neanderthals. Our latest paper, a critical review of Neanderthal iconography through time, with epistemological, paleobiological, ethical, and aesthetic contributions. Thank you for reading and for your comments.
December 4, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
Zamia spp. is the host plant for Eumaeus atala caterpillars. Both larvae & adults are aposematic. Zamia contains cycasin, a carcinogenic & neurotoxic glucoside. This toxin is not to be trifled with! 📷: larvae by Judy Gallagher CCBY2 #Zamiaceae #Aposematism #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
December 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Mario Coiro
#PlantResearch Enjoyed writing with @beverleycubg.bsky.social a perspective about wonderful paper by Valencia-Montoya et al. in this week's Science. Cycads use thermal radiation to affect pollinators. Is this why Cycads are not as diverse as angiosperms? share.google/Xj8iH9E4tqvN...
Infrared as a pollination signal
Relying on infrared communication over visual color could have limited cycad evolution
share.google
December 12, 2025 at 8:54 PM