See also nice summary here in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

22 / 23 This project was a large collaboration between research groups at Edinburgh and other institutions, with Corentin Loron and I as co-first authors (and as part of my PhD thesis!) and @sandyheth.bsky.social as corresponding author.

12 / 23 Below shows us imaging through the medullary spots of Prototaxites, revealing the dense and interconnected branching of tubes that go down to one micron in diameter!

4 / 23 First we used high-resolution microscopy to examine in detail the structure of the fossils, and then analysis of the molecular fingerprint of the organic matter preserved within the fossil.

3 / 23 But Prototaxites hasn’t been definitively placed in any of the groups of living fungi. In our study, we took a new approach to this question. We wanted to see if Prototaxites could fit within the fungal group as a whole, and to answer this, we used a combination of techniques.

2 / 23 What Prototaxites was has been debated extensively since its first description almost 170 years ago. It was originally described as a tree, but this was soon rejected. More recent researchers have described it as a fungus, due to its hypha-like structure and likely decomposer lifestyle.

1 / 23 Prototaxites is known from some very large fossils, including columns over 8m tall. These fossils date from the end of the Silurian to the Late Devonian (425–365 million years ago). This makes Prototaxites the largest organism on the Earth’s surface before the appearance of tall trees.

That's fantastic Chris! I have always been intrigued by the figure of it in his 1986 paper so its amazing to know the specimen still exists! Can't wait to see it in person next time I am down in Cardiff!

And when you’re done with Fay-Wei’s excellent book, get a copy of this awesomeness by Neil Bell, which explains why mosses are almost as cool as liverworts, including stunning photography and the latest science

Congratulations Chris!!!

paper is out now in Nature Plants, here is a link: Imputation integrates single-cell and spatial gene expression data to resolve transcriptional networks in barley shoot meristem development. Nat. Plants (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Here is a link to the seminar series organised by the International Barley Hub, at James Hutton Institute. This is a recording of an online seminar, where I explained the approach we used and some applications to developmental questions.
barleyhub.org/ibh-seminar-...