Seminar on Cenozoic Cycad Evolution

Macro photo of a lower cuticle of a 30 million year old dioonopsis cycad leaf from CaliforniaTitle: Chapters from the Cenozoic History of Cycads.

Speaker: Dr. Boglarka Erdei, Hungarian Museum of Natural History.

Time: Friday, May 23. 1:30 pm, Reception, coffee and cookies; 2:00 pm, lecture.

Location: Nixon Smiley Meeting Room, Montgomery Botanical Center.

Description: Dr. Erdei writes: “The fossil record gives clear evidence that cycads were flourishing during the Mesozoic. But what do we know about their evolution in the Cenozoic, the past 65 million years? In my presentation I would like to highlight some interesting aspects of early Tertiary cycad evolution.”

About the Speaker: Dr. Erdei, a paleobotanist and expert on fossil cycads, has spent the last year at Montgomery Botanical Center as a Research Fellow, supported by the Hungarian American Enterprise Scholarship Fund. She has worked to compare MBC’s living cycad collection to extinct species known only from fossils.