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Dianne Edwards
Professor Dianne Edwards CBE, FRS, FRSE, FLS, FLSW (born 1942) is a palaeobotanist, who studies the colonisation of land by plants, and early land plant interactions. Early life Edwards was born in Swansea, South Wales, and spent much of her time at her parents' bungalow on the Gower Peninsula. Career Edwards' work has centred on early plant fossils, the majority of which have been retrieved from the UK. Her interest in early plants was initiated after she studied plant fossils preserved in three dimensions in the mineral pyrite (fools' gold). Much of her later work has centred on the Rhynie chert and charcoalified fossils, large and microscopic, from the Welsh borderlands and South Wales. Edwards is a Distinguished Research Professor, and former Head of School within the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, at Cardiff University. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an honorary Fellow at the University of Wales, Swansea, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V and comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were originally made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire (later Commonwealth) and the Viceroy of India. Nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most Commonwealth countries ceased recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire when they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Learned Society Of Wales
The Learned Society of Wales (Welsh: Cymdeithas Ddysgedig Cymru) is a learned society and charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the Welsh nation. The Learned Society of Wales is Wales's first and only all-embracing national scholarly academy. A registered charity, it was established and launched on 25 May 2010 at the National Museum of Wales and was granted a Royal Charter in 2015. The society is based in Cardiff. It is an independent, self-governing, pan-disciplinary, bilingual organisation operating throughout Wales. Purpose The Society describes its mission as to: * Celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect, and encourage excellence in all scholarly disciplines, and in the professions, industry and commerce, the arts and public service. * Promote the advancement of learning, scholarship, and the dissemination and application of the results of academic enquiry and research. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyell Medal
The Lyell Medal is a prestigious annual scientific medal given by the Geological Society of London, equal in status to the Murchison Medal. This medal is awarded based on one Earth Scientist's exceptional contribution of research to the scientific community. It is named after Charles Lyell. Lyell Medalists SourceGeological Society 19th century * 1876 John Morris * 1877 James Hector * 1878 George Busk * 1879 Edmond Hebert * 1880 John Evans * 1881 John William Dawson * 1882 John Lycett * 1883 William Benjamin Carpenter * 1884 Joseph Leidy * 1885 Harry Govier Seeley * 1886 William Pengelly * 1887 Samuel Allport * 1888 Henry Alleyne Nicholson * 1889 William Boyd Dawkins * 1890 Thomas Rupert Jones * 1891 Thomas McKenny Hughes * 1892 George Highfield Morton * 1893 Edwin Tulley Newton * 1894 John Milne * 1895 John Frederick Blake * 1896 Arthur Smith Woodward * 1897 George Jennings Hinde * 1898 Wilhelm Waagen * 1899 Charles Alexander McMahon * 1900 John Edward Marr 20th century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural History Museum, London
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. The museum is a centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a ''cathedral of nature''—both exemplified by the large ''Diplodocus'' cast that domina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word (''botanē'') meaning " pasture", " herbs" "grass", or " fodder"; is in turn derived from (), "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists (in the strict sense) study approximately 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants (including approximately 369,000 species of flowering plants), and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes. Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and later cultivate – ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeontological Association
The Palaeontological Association (PalAss for short) is a charitable organisation based in the UK founded in 1957 for the promotion of the study of palaeontology and allied sciences. Publications The Association publishes two main journals: ''Palaeontology'' and ''Papers in Palaeontology''. The latter is the successor to the now discontinued ''Special Papers in Palaeontology.'' In addition, the ''Palaeontology Newsletter'' is published 3 times per year, and the '' Field Guides to Fossils'' series covering important palaeontological biotas is published in book form. Awards The Association confers a number of awards, including the Gertrude Elles Award for high-quality public engagement; the Mary Anning Award for outstanding contributions from those not professionally employed in palaeontology; the Hodson Award for exceptional early-career achievement; the President's Medal as a mid-career award; and the organisation's highest award for exceptional lifetime achievement, the Lapw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demersatheca
''Demersatheca'' is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early Devonian (Pragian, around ). Fossils were first found in the Posongchong Formation of eastern Yunnan, China. The plant had smooth leafless stems at least 1 mm in diameter, but only regions which bore spore-forming organs or sporangia are well-known. Sporangia were borne in 'spikes' or strobili, at least 40 mm long; one had 32 sporangia. Sporangia were arranged in four rows, two sporangia being opposite to one another on the stem with the next two being at right angles. Each sporangium consisted of two 'valves' which opened at the top to release their spores. A particular feature of ''Demersatheca'' which distinguishes it from other zosterophylls is that the stalk-less sporangia were sunken into the stem of the spike, so that the outer valve was flush with the surface. Taxonomy ''D. contigua'' was initially called ''Zosterophyllum contiguum'' by Li and Cai, based on parts of two spikes (strobili) of spo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danziella
''Danziella'' is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early Devonian (around ). Fossils found in the Artois region of northern France were first described as ''Zosterophyllum artesianum'', but a later review by Edwards showed that they did not fit the circumscription of that genus. Description Compressed fossils were found in the Artois region of northern France, in rocks which were originally thought to be of Pragian age (around ) but more recently have been considered to be probably of Emsian origin (around ). Plants consisted of smooth leafless stems (axes) up to 1.5 mm wide and were at least 85 mm high. They branched at right angles. Spore-forming organs or sporangia were borne on all sides, spaced irregularly on stalks up to 3 mm long which held them horizontally, and not forming a distinct 'spike'. Individual sporangia were elliptical in shape, around 3 mm wide by 2 mm high, splitting into two 'valves' along a line opposite to the stalks in or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prototaxites
''Prototaxites'' is a genus of terrestrial fossil fungi dating from the Middle Ordovician until the Late Devonian periods, approximately . ''Prototaxites'' formed small to large trunk-like structures up to wide, reaching in length, made up of interwoven tubes around in diameter, making it by far the largest land-dwelling organism of its time. Whilst traditionally very difficult to assign to an extant group of organisms, current opinion suggests a fungal placement for the genus. Its exact relationship with extant fungus lineages is uncertain. It was almost certainly a perennial organism that grew over multiple years. Several ecologies have been proposed, including that it was saprotrophic like many modern fungi, or that it was a lichenised autotroph. Morphology left, upDawson's 1888 reconstruction of a conifer-like ''Prototaxites'' With a diameter of up to , and a height reaching , ''Prototaxites'' fossils are remnants of by far the largest organism discovered from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tortilicaulis
''Tortilicaulis'' is a moss-like plant known from fossils recovered from southern Britain, spanning the Silurian-Devonian boundary (around ). Originally recovered from the Downtonian of the Welsh borderlands, ''Tortilicaulis'' has since been recovered in the famous Ludlow Lane locality. Whilst it is generally accepted that ''Tortilicaulis'' was moss-like, it has not yet been recovered in a sufficiently good state of preservation to allow the detailed study necessary to firmly assign it to a taxonomic group. Fossils consist of an elongate apical sporangium (spore-forming organ), which may be branched, with spiralled walls attached to an undivided stalk that is also twisted. Unusually for plants of its time, spores of ''Tortilicaulis'' were covered all over with small granules. The initial suspicions of its describer, Dianne Edwards, were that it was a bryophyte, and comparisons have been made with several groups. A potential association with the moss '' Takakia'' is supp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nematothallus
''Nematothallus'' is a form genus comprising cuticle-like fossils. Some of its constituents likely represent red algae, whereas others resemble lichens. History of research ''Nematothallus'' was first described by Lang in 1937, who envisioned it being an early thallose land plant with tubular features and sporophytes, covered by a cuticle which preserved impressions of the underlying cells. He had found abundant disaggregated remains of all three features, none of which were connected to another, leaving his reconstruction of the phytodebris as parts of a single organism highly conjectural. Even so, it was picked up by Jonker (1973), who proposed that ''Nematothallus'' represented leaves of ''Prototaxites'', which he interpreted as a red alga. Further work failed to draw together all aspects of the organism: Edwards (1982) and Edwards and Rose (1984) both provided thorough descriptions of the cuticular aspects of the plants, while Pratt ''et al.'' (1978) and Niklas and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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