In this paper we describe the first anatomically preserved Mesozoic seed fern cupule-Petriellaea. The multiovulate cupules were produced singly at the end of a short dichotomizing axis. Cupules are ...

According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times.

The Matoniaceae is one of the most ancient lineages of extant ferns, with a fossil record that extends from the early Mesozoic. Currently they are considered to be a systematically isolated group that ...

At the end of the Triassic around 201 million years ago, three out of four species on Earth disappeared. Up until now, scientists believed the cause of the catastrophe to be the onset of large-scale ...

We have previously covered research that has linked mass volcanic eruptions with the onset of global- or continent-wide mass extinctions. Evidence is also mounting that the eruption of the Central ...

dinosaurs may have arrived with a bang, as well as gone out with one. Scientists have found the hallmarks of a meteorite impact and mass extinction in rocks just below strata containing the earliest ...

A sheep-sized reptile that roamed the earth between 250 and 225 million years ago eating tough vegetation eventually starved to death due to its diet weakening its teeth, new research has suggested.

The Triassic–Jurassic transition represents one of Earth’s most profound episodes of biological upheaval, characterised by extensive volcanic activity, rapid climatic shifts and cascading ...

Most researchers believe that the mass extinction 201 million years ago was caused by release of CO2 by volcanism with global warming as a consequence. Now, new data from fern spores suggest there ...