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Jon Tennant

Jon began university life as a geologist, followed by a treacherous leap into the life sciences. He spent several years at Imperial College London, investigating the extinction and biodiversity patterns of Mesozoic tetrapods – anything with four legs or flippers – to discover whether or not there is evidence for a ‘hidden’ mass extinction 145 million years ago. Alongside this, Jon researched the origins and evolution of ‘dwarf’ crocodiles called atoposaurids. Prior to this, there was a brief interlude were Jon was immersed in the world of science policy and communication, which greatly shaped his views on the broader role that science can play, and in particular, the current ‘open’ debate. Jon tragically passed away in 2020.

Good news everyone..!

October 16, 2013

Thanks to Ross Mounce for alerting me to this piece of news.

Fossil Record: An International Journal of Geosciences 
We invite you to submit or recommend papers to this ISI-listed, international palaeontological journal of the Museum fur Naturkunde Berlin. Fossil Record publishes original research papers covering all areas of palaeontology and provides a platform for a wide array of articles with palaeobiological content, ranging from new descriptions of fossil faunas and floras to phylogenetic studies, palaeobiogeographic analyses and constructional morphology. All taxonomic groups of fossil organisms are considered, including invertebrates, microfossils, plants and vertebrates. Manuscripts submitted to Fossil Record will be peer-reviewed by at least two external referees. For us, the most important aspect is that Fossil Record will in 2014 become an open access journal with our new professional publishing partner Copernicus Publications. With this decision, the Museum fur Naturkunde and the team of editors close the gap between the requirements of many scientists, funders, and libraries for open access to scientific publications. As well as enjoying better visibility, your papers will be much more widely distributed and available for scientific databases. Fossil Record will have to introduce article processing charges (APC) by 2014 because open access publishing requires paying the costs of the review process, typesetting, web publication and long term archiving upon publication. APC are obtained on a page-by-page basis (please find more APC information) but many universities, research institutions and grant agencies provide funds to support authors regarding APC. Please check with your institution. In addition, Copernicus Publications has several agreements in place to settle payments directly between the respective institution and the publisher. Furthermore, Fossil Record has a budget of free pages to be decided by the Editor-in-Chief available to authors from developing countries, or for special publications upon request. We look forwards to receiving your manuscripts which can be uploaded here in the Copernicus Office Editor.

Yours sincerely, The Fossil Record Editors M. Aberhan, D. Korn, F. Witzmann

So as an open access advocate, a supporter of the EGU and Copernicus, and a palaeontologist (in case you hadn’t got that yet), it’s great to see this move from a non-OA domain within Wiley (a partial open access publisher). Also nice to see is the assistance offered to authors from developing countries, and a page-based article processing charge (APC), which may encourage different length manuscripts to be submitted. It is worth noting though that often the review process is handled by volunteer editors and volunteer reviewers, so I’m not sure why this is being included in the APC overview. Anyway, it’s a good move, and happily coincides with the EGU rolling out their altmetrics platform (altmetrics are ways of seeing how an article has been digitally disseminated, along with citation counts etc) – great stuff!
For more on open access and stuff, I wrote a guest post for Matt Shipman on it recently, which you can find here.

What do we know about the origin of flowering plants?

October 15, 2013

bioThis is a guest post by Dan Peppe.  He is an Assistant Professor in the Geology Department at Baylor University.  His research interests are focused on reconstructing ancient climates and ecosystems in North America and East Africa and on developing new and improved palaeoclimate and palaeoecological proxies using methods in paleobotany, sedimentary geology, and paleomagnetism.  More information about Dan and his research can be found on his website: www.danielpeppe.com.  He also tweets about his research and other interests on his Twitter account (@danpeppe). 

Over the last couple of weeks several blogs and news outlet have reported that a new study published in Frontiers in Plant Science (Hochuli and Feist-Burkhardt, 2013) shows that new fossil pollen push back the origin of flowering plants (angiosperms) by 100 million years to the early Triassic (e.g., LiveScience, BBC, ScienceDaily). The headlines and articles lead a reader to assume that there was new evidence showing that angiosperms were present in the Triassic (252-201 million years ago, Ma).  However, the new study actually suggests something quite different that adds to a growing body of evidence pertaining to a larger narrative about the evolution of plants and the evolution of angiosperms.

Fossil charcoalified floras from a Late Cretaceous (Santonian, 86 – 83 Ma) in central Georgia showing amazing 3D preservation and anatomical detail. Images were taken using a scanning electron microscope and are considerably magnified (A magnified X50, B X100, C X20). Flower images are from Figure 4 of Crane et al. (2004).

Fossil charcoalified floras from a Late Cretaceous (Santonian, 86 – 83 Ma) in central Georgia showing amazing 3D preservation and anatomical detail. Images were taken using a scanning electron microscope and are considerably magnified (A magnified X50, B X100, C X20). Flower images are from Figure 4 of Crane et al. (2004).

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Palaeontology rocks!

October 14, 2013

OK, so the usual joke is Geology rocks, but Catherine Bennett, who describes herself as a “Dinosaur-loving, bike-riding, dog-owning, tuna pasta eating pop star!!” created this cool video with the remixed title. It stars many palaeontologists I know from the UK, and is a really nice way of showcasing the diversity of palaeontologists and palaeontology we have here. Enjoy!

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Green tea and Velociraptors turns into beer and dwarf crocodiles

October 8, 2013

I’m in Berlin. I’ve just managed to find a chicken donner kebab, and am pausing research briefly to write this. I’m currently on leave from London, with a ridiculously hectic couple of months ahead: I’ve just been to Munich to see a dwarf crocodile specimen, Alligatorellus beaumonti (from Bavaria), which conveniently happened to coincide with Oktoberfest, and am now here to visit another specimen, Theriosuchus ibericus, from Spain. Preliminary glances at the material in Berlin makes me think the Spanish material may be a new genus altogether (whatever that actually means), and another broken up specimen of Alligatorellus might be a new species, based on what I can tell from it’s body armour (yeah, these crocs were awesome!)

Alligatorellus beaumonti, holotype specimen. Copyright: Bavarian State Collection, Munich

Alligatorellus beaumonti, holotype specimen. Copyright: Bavarian State Collection, Munich

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