Laura Cooper

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

Are you looking for a PhD in the area of plant evolution? If so do apply to join the lab for this competitively funded @gpsep.bsky.social PhD project to study the evolution of branching architecture by combing data from fossils, ferns and genes. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The VCWAP is back! 🎉 Join us March 8-10, 2027. Registration & submissions (abstracts + scientific art) are now open ➡️ awap-science.org/en/vcwap-cur... Open to ALL, whatever your employment status, gender identity or expression. Everyone’s welcome to participate! Artworks by Ainhoa Lekuona 🐺

Our latest: Reconstructing spore evolution recalibrates the timescale of land plant diversification, led by Jack Hooper, Annie Worth, with help from Charles Wellman @jameswclark.bsky.social and myself. file:///Users/glpcjd/Downloads/s41477-026-02432-3.pdf

Fabulous fragment of an ancient Egyptian wall relief with three bears and an oil jar. The paint has survived some 4,500 years! Limestone relief from the Pyramid Temple of Sahure, Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, c. 2496-2483 BC. Neues Museum, Berlin 📷 by me #ReliefWednesday #Archaeology

Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc

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/

#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/ 🦖🧪

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

Boom! A simply brilliant study of a pomegranate from Jacques le Moyne des Morgues. I mean, color, composition, wow. Today is his day.

Strange things found looking up fossil localities this week.

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...

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...

Thanks to @scishow.bsky.social for their new video covering our research on Prototaxites, really great work here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gFg...

Partial mycoheterotrophy: a common strategy in arbuscular mycorrhizal plants? Merckx et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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

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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...

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.

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

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

It's so funny when people ask me what I do: "So there's this unfathomable mystery of life..."

Two year anniversary of when I first posted this comic

"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...

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

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

🤔 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...

Very, very happy that our paper is finally out! We look at how tight a fit primates experience at birth, and found really cool results. It has been a long journey from collecting the first data seven years ago! A brief thread (1/8) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is cultural suicide and intellectual vandalism. In an era where humanities-illiterate tech bros have unearned god-like powers, we need historians, philosophers, ethicists, classicists more than ever. Please sign. (Reposting without 404) www.change.org/p/stop-redun...

Call for Writers! 📣 Are you a student or early career researcher? Science communicator? Know someone who is? We're looking for our next round of Guest Bloggers for our journal blog The Paper Trail! Check out our vacancies page to apply, and read some of our latest posts here: buff.ly/7JVQmSx 🧪 🌍

Have you ever booped a trilobite nose? Kainops raymondi from the Devonian Haragan Fm. near Clarita, Oklahoma - Black Cat Mountain. #FossilFriday

🌿Brand new research out in Science today about angiosperm reproductive strategies and how they preceded the K-Pg mass extinction, led by UCMP PhD student, Jaemin Lee, and curator, Cindy Looy!🌿 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🔥 Published today, and just in time for summer conferences, here are your guidelines for presenting badly www.nature.com/articles/s41... rdcu.be/fqa92

Scientific American is 180 years old. The most eminent science magazine for the general public. And today, sold off as scrap to stop the staff from unionizing. Many top editors I've worked with for a decade on several articles have been fired. What a disgrace @sciam.bsky.social

Congratulation @transitionalform.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social for publishing the next chapter of your thesis @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Great work showing that the two fundamental vascular tissues - xylem and phloem evolved asynchronously. Read Laura's thread for more details 👇👇