Laura Cooper
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transitionalform.bsky.social
Laura Cooper
@transitionalform.bsky.social
790 followers 470 following 120 posts
Postdoc investigating the plants of the past at the University of Edinburgh, plants can be rocks too!
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transitionalform.bsky.social
Laura Cooper @transitionalform.bsky.social · Jan 21
Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below!
Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage
Reposted by Laura Cooper
canopyrobin.com
We're publishing new guidance to support trans people who do fieldwork (any work outside the office)!

Now we need your help to get them seen so please share! inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/trans/
a cartoon of three fieldworkers. One has a small trans flag. The logos of the university of leeds, research england, and canopy robin are shown, as well as the URL: InclusiveFieldwork (dot) Leeds (dot) AC (dot) UK (slash) trans
September 25, 2026 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
coastalpaleo.bsky.social
#fossilfriday An example of why the ANSP and its collections must be saved. Atlantochelys mortoni, a giant protostegid sea turtle - named in 1849 by Agassiz based on the proximal humerus fragment. In 2012, someone found a large distal humerus that FIT ONTO THE SAME BONE in ANSP collections. 1/ 🦖🧪
The reunited humerus of the gigantic sea turtle Atlantochelys, on display in a museum: you can clearly see the break that happened sometime prior to the 19th century.
September 25, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
alexisrastier.bsky.social
Here is our new paper: Global proliferation of opportunistic pleuromeian lycopsids following the disappearance of the end-Triassic forests.

Peng J, Slater S. M, McLoughlin S, Rastier A, Vajda V: doi.org/10.1038/s445...

#Paleobotany #lycopsids #Jurassic
Global proliferation of opportunistic pleuromeian lycopsids following the disappearance of the end-Triassic forests - npj Palaeoecosystems
npj Palaeoecosystems - Global proliferation of opportunistic pleuromeian lycopsids following the disappearance of the end-Triassic forests
doi.org
August 18, 2026 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
jacquelyngill.bsky.social
Another paper from our NASA-funded project on ferns has dropped! UWyoming MS student Fern (really!) Holian, developed a new schema for classifying fossil ferns, which are understudied. 🧪🌿☄️
Application of a novel schema for describing fossil fern foliage and investigating taxonomic and morphological change across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary in western North America
Premise The Chicxulub asteroid impact at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary triggered a mass extinction 66 million years ago. Ferns thrived in the aftermath of the extinction, evidenced by the.....
bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 1, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
Boom! A simply brilliant study of a pomegranate from Jacques le Moyne des Morgues. I mean, color, composition, wow. Today is his day.
September 15, 2026 at 3:48 PM
transitionalform.bsky.social
Strange things found looking up fossil localities this week.
A screenshot from Wikipedia of Megaliths in Kazakhstan A screenshot of a google review of the Kuznetsk Alatau reading "While ventricular may not be the correct word, neither should citrus fruit be given nose trimmers. Those are my thoughts. But please do visit and judge for yourself" A screenshot of a google review reading "Samantha was attacked by a polar bear, but i dont really care. but they didn't let me bring my tractor. 2 star"
September 11, 2026 at 4:26 PM
transitionalform.bsky.social
The paper a lot of our lab (@sannie-zishanfu.bsky.social @sandyheth.bsky.social @anajusagasti.bsky.social) contributed to on the indepedent origins of the endodermis with Tom Beeckman and Xilian Yang is out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Independent origins of endodermis in lycopsids and euphyllophyte roots
The endodermis is a vital barrier tissue in plants, but its origin, evolution, and homologies across land plants remain ambiguous. Here, we implement …
www.sciencedirect.com
September 11, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
aveneziano.bsky.social
Creativity is a high-risk high-reward feature of #science. No creativity = stagnant research! The miserable state of today's academia makes individual creativity a risk instead of an asset for a scientific career. You should read this article, carefully 🧪

doi.org/10.1038/s415...
How contemporary academic structures constrain scientific creativity and hold back early-career researchers - Nature Human Behaviour
In this Perspective, Haubrock et al. argue that today’s scientific structures constrain creativity and that strategic conformity is a rational response. They discuss how this holds back early-career r...
doi.org
September 11, 2026 at 2:34 PM
transitionalform.bsky.social
Thanks to @scishow.bsky.social for their new video covering our research on Prototaxites, really great work here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gFg...
Those Ancient Giant Fungi Weren’t Fungi After All
YouTube video by SciShow
www.youtube.com
September 3, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
tjalamont.bsky.social
Our queen of the night cactus had a dozen flowers open on the same night this week. It was quite a show, worth staying up to see, plus the scent of so many flowers at once was incredible.
A close up phone pic of two large, white epiphytic cactus flowers blooming at night. The one in the foreground is resting lightly on the ground. A picture of a green epiphytic cactus plant against a wooden fence at night. Six large white flowers are blooming on the plant.
July 25, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
wrycritic.bsky.social
Astounding traditional Chinese artworks of the Cretaceous invertebrates from the Jehol (远古小精灵系列), featured at the Nanjing Paleontological Museum.

Glad to see creative representation of insects in palaeontology.
12 artworks of Cretaceous insets Ephemeropsis mayflies Kalligramma reconstruction
July 26, 2026 at 7:36 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
newphyt.bsky.social
Partial mycoheterotrophy: a common strategy in arbuscular mycorrhizal plants?

Merckx et al.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Proposed autotrophy to mycoheterotrophy continuum among mycorrhizal plants, based on Johnson et al. (1997).
July 21, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
realhopejahren.bsky.social
Do you, or someone you know, study carbon isotopes? If so, you need this paper: ⚛️🌱☁️

"A century of research on carbon isotope discrimination during photosynthesis: from early breakthroughs to future goals"
(by me and @schubertba.bsky.social)

#TansleyReview #PublishedArticle #OpenAccess
A century of research on carbon isotope discrimination during photosynthesis: from early breakthroughs to future goals
Advanced plant growth chambers quantified the dependency of carbon isotope fractionation on CO2 level, making possible the reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 across 500 million years of earth history ...
doi.org
July 17, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
helenbarrett.bsky.social
Unveiled this evening: the 170-year-old, grade ii*-listed, wildly inaccurate Crystal Palace dinosaurs, now restored to their original colours and off the Historic England at-risk register.
Enormous model lizards in Crystal Palace Park Enormous model lizards in Crystal Palace Park
July 16, 2026 at 8:02 PM
transitionalform.bsky.social
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andrejpaleo.bsky.social Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · Jul 16
The fossil record of amber really track an "immune system" of plants. The earliest amber from the Middle Devonian of China.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio
. Photographs of the Middle Devonian Hujiersite amber. Geological context of the cutinitic coal seam of the APR section of the Hujiersite Formation
July 16, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
travis-park.bsky.social
If you want an up-to-date summary of whale and dolphin evolution, have a read of my new review paper in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com! I’ve tried to cover as much research as possible in this, so apologies if I’ve missed you!

doi.org/10.1038/s443...
The evolution and diversification of Cetacea - Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Cetaceans are a highly diverse and enigmatic group of animals with a well-documented evolutionary history. This Review describes the macroevolutionary and palaeobiological history of Cetacea, from the...
doi.org
July 16, 2026 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
milesklee.bsky.social
My privilege to share some lovely stories from the science community about what Sam Neill's timeless performance as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park meant to them—and why it will continue to inspire kids to chase their own discoveries for years to come.
Sam Neill Inspired a Generation of Scientists
The actor, who died at age 78 on Monday, embodied a passionate approach to research and positive masculinity in his role as paleontologist Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park.
www.wired.com
July 13, 2026 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
botany.one
Paleo Week: Ancient Secrets of the Fibonacci Spiral
www.botany.one/ancient-secr...

Longer cones and a clockwise spiral lead to tighter seed packing in a Jurassic conifer
#Botany #PlantScience
Paleo Week: Ancient Secrets of the Fibonacci Spiral
Longer cones and a clockwise spiral lead to tighter seed packing in a Jurassic conifer
www.botany.one
July 13, 2026 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
aldpaleo.bsky.social
Friends of Fossil Forests seminar tomorrow "Opalized wood from Clover Creek, Idaho: A case study in the power of amateur-professional collaboration" 🌳🌲⛏️ July 14, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT (GMT-4). All info & RSVP to get the link:
www.fossilforests.org/post/petrifi...
#fossil #paleobotany #wood
Photo of a section of fossil wood from Clover Creek from the Friends of Fossil Forests website.
July 13, 2026 at 6:23 AM
transitionalform.bsky.social
It's so funny when people ask me what I do: "So there's this unfathomable mystery of life..."
July 11, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
beetlemoses.bsky.social
Two year anniversary of when I first posted this comic
Two panel comic. Panel 1: an anglerfish is washed up on the ocean shore, laying in the tide. It thinks to itself, “it’s so beautiful.” Panel 2: wide shot of the beach, rocky cliffs, and sky at sunset, with the anglerfish still laying in place. The anglerfish continues thinking to itself, “I might have never known.”
July 10, 2026 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
currentbiology.bsky.social
"Algae frequently get a bad press" 🤔

But reflecting further, most of the time they do good work.

All about #algae in this excellent primer by John Raven and Mario Gordano

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Algae
Algae are a diverse group of organisms that collectively have important impacts, both positive and negative, on the environment and on human lives.
www.cell.com
June 19, 2026 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Something beautiful for the weekend!

An extraordinary Acheulean handaxe knapped around a fossil shell c. 500,000-300,000 years ago!

From West Tofts, Norfolk
📷 MAA Cambridge University collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/4509...

#Archaeology
The photo shows a Lower Paleolithic Acheulean biface handaxe knapped from dark grey flint with a creamy-white cortical layer, shown against a black background. The handaxe is roughly tear-drop shaped with a pointed tip and rounded bottom. There is a fossil shell centrally displayed on one face, identified as the Cretaceous bivalve mollusc Spondylus spinosus. Above the shell to the right is a small rectangular museum label. Likely made by an early neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) population or an alternative Middle Pleistocene hominin species (H. heidelbergensis s.l.). The toolmaker has knapped the flint in such a way as to seemingly retain the shell in a central position. The shell’s central display has often been described as an example of aesthetic intention by the toolmaker. A recent study (“The West Tofts handaxe: A remarkably average, structurally flawed, utilitarian biface” by Emily Flanders and Alastair Key) concluded it was likely ‘an average utilitarian tool’ in the eyes of its Acheulean maker, and that the aesthetic intent is assumed by the present-day beholder, and not supported by objective evidence. Measurements 79mm x 35mm x 132mm. Weight 0.375kg. Collections of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.
July 4, 2026 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
alexmcbowles.bsky.social
Think you know aquatic plants? 7 facts that might surprise you 👇🌊

Read more: shorturl.at/0bCm1

As highlighted in @currentbiology.bsky.social, while at @ox.ac.uk @biology.ox.ac.uk
Seaweeds are not plants – and six other surprising facts about aquatic flora
The rules for plants can be different in water.
shorturl.at
July 2, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Laura Cooper
seanhmcmahon.bsky.social
🤔 Can a concept widely used in economics help us recognise alien life, from fossils on Mars to molecules in the outer solar system? A quick thread to explain a new paper from my research group : Can Pareto Optimality be Evidence of Life?, by Rodgers et al. 🧵 1/10 doi.org/10.1177/1531...
Cartoons of (a) swimming rod-shaped bacteria, which look like long beans with wriggly strings at the ends; (b) a branching network that could be a kind of plant, alga, or fungus; (c) the structure of a protein molecule.
June 30, 2026 at 12:41 PM