Lost Forests

Lost Forests: Reconstructing the Extinct and Extreme Plants of the High Latitudes

Polar environments present unique physical challenges for plants, including endless nights in winter and continuous days in summer, coupled with temperature, wind, and other stresses. However, for the last three hundred million years, there have been periods where trees and forests have grown at latitudes far beyond any tree on Earth today. How did they cope? In this talk, I will discuss recent and ongoing research on fossil forests from near the poles—including Svalbard, the Falkland Islands, and Antarctica—and what they tell us about plant evolution and past environments.

Jonathan Paul Wilson is a paleobotanist and the Edward Drinker Cope Professor of Environmental Biology at Haverford College. He uses mathematical models to study the biophysical properties of extinct plants and employs these values in paleoclimatic and paleoecosystem simulations. For more information: Jonathan Wilson's Biography.

Photo Caption: Growth rings in a cross-section of conifer wood (Protocedroxylon araucarioides) from Mesozoic Era strata in the Svalbard Archipelago

Parking for this event is in the Visitor's Lot, the talks location is currently TBD.