Research

The rich diversity of Earth’s plant life is vital to the continued survival of our species and for the future of the animals and ecosystems that thrive on the land surface of our planet. 

My research has covered many aspects of plant evolution, from the initial colonization of the Earth’s land surface to the early evolution of flowers and flowering plants. In most cases this research has focused on studies of fossils plants to establish how they are related to living forms and what they can tell us about the evolution of the plant life of today.

Current research is mainly focused on investigating the early evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) based on studies of fossils from eastern North America and Portugal, as well as investigations of seed plant evolution based on fossils from eastern Asia.

Work on flowering plants is mainly with my long-time collaborators Professor Else Marie Friis and Professor Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Work on seed plant evolution is mainly with Dr. Gongle Shi at the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China, and Dr. Pat Herendeen and Dr Fabiany Herrera at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I am deeply grateful to these colleagues, and many other collaborators, for their friendship and their engagement in our shared research. I also greatly appreciate my continuing research links with Yale University as a Senior Research Scientist in the Yale School of the Environment and as a Curatorial Affiliate in the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Dinosaur Age Plant Fossils From the Early Cretaceous (ca. 125 Million Years Ago) of Eastern Asia

Eastern Asia, including Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China, is well-known for the spectacular dinosaur fossils that date from the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous (ca. 150 to 65 million years ago). Just like today, the ancient ecosystems in which dinosaurs lived were ultimately supported by the energy harvested by plants from the Sun. To gain a better understanding of the plants that were part of the ancient ecosystems two different fossil localities with different kinds of preservation are being investigated together with colleagues from China, Japan, Mongolia and the United States: one at Tevshin Govi, Mongolia, and another at the Zhahanaoer open-cast coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China.