Lectures and Learning
OSGF
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
OSGF President Sir Peter Crane will give a public lecture entitled "Ginkgo: An Evolutionary and Cultural Biography” on Thursday July 27th at the XIX International Botanical Congress that is taking place in Shenzhen, China. Among the topics he will be discussing is the use of ancient Ginkgo leaves to estimate changes in levels of CO2 in the atmosphere over geologic time, including work currently being undertaken at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland. You can learn more on this “Fossil Atmospheres Experiment”, which is being carried out by Dr. Rich Barclay and Dr. Scott Wing. Visit the associated website for the citizen science project.
Prior the botanical Congress he has been undertaking fieldwork in Inner Mongolia with colleagues from the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology. Among the fossils recovered were many examples of ancient ginkgo leaves as well as other examples of the strange extinct ginkgo relative Umaltolepis that they recently described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Click here to learn more about the XIX International Botanical Conference.