iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Happy to have participated to the XII EPPC in Münster, the first conference together with my two Doctoral Students, and the whole paleobotanical Senckenberg Frankfurt team! I am so proud of the great work that my students have presented!

group of people in front of the University Museum in Muenster

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Today the organisers #SAPP2026 have gone to schools in Trelew to talk to the pupils about what a scientific conference is and why fossil plants are important to understand our past and future. What an amazing way to reconnect people to their paleontological heritage, we have much to learn from them!

Cast of a fossil plant used to show school pupils how a fossil plant looks like

3D printed pollen grains used to show school pupils what pollen is

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

On my way to the Simposio Argentino de Paleobotanica y Palinologia in Trelew! Looking forward to seeing many amazing talks and meeting fascinating people! #SAPP2026

Baggage claim area of the Trelew airport with a bas-relief of dinosaurs advertising the Museo Egidio Feruglio

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

a cute little fossil fern for this #FossilFriday. This picture was taken by illuminating the fossil with light in the visible spectrum and capturing the infrared radiation emitted from the specimen!

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

A beautiful set of branches of Archaeopteris, one of the first globally distributed trees, it's ideal for #FossilFriday!

A specimen of the fossil tree Archaeopteris with particularly large leaves (around 4 cm broad)

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Almost twenty years of difference, still believe it's a great motto!

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

First day in one of my favourite places!

A statue of a Carnotaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur, stands in front of the building of the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio in Trelew, Argentina

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

First mini I managed to (sort of finish! Quite an achievement for an artistically impaired individual such as myself...

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Can you guess where I am spending the long weekend? #paleontology

A bearded man stands in front of a Giraffatitan skeleton in the Museum für Naturkunde

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

everything is a JoJo reference

A Ferrarelle advertisement on a parking building outside Naples Airport

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 19/10/2024

given the deluge of new followers, a new introduction is appropriate: I am a palaeobotanist with a passion for fossil leaves of all kind, but expecially cycad leaves! Other interests include supporting plant paleoart, TTRPGs, food, beer and wine! I also sometimes write on my blog mariocoiro.blog

fossil leaf of Ctenis sulcicaulis, including a scale and label

selfie of the author in front of an Encephalartos woodii

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 22/03/2024

the results? Cycad morphological space continued to expand after the Jurassic, and its position continuosly shifted through time. Extant cycad leaves are not a leftover of a great past diversity, but rather continue to evolve and diversify up to the present!

a graph of sum of variance through time and one of centroid distance through time, the first showing an increase up to the present and the second showing continuous movements of the mean

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 22/03/2024

we used morphological data for fossil and extant cycad leaves, the fossils that started the whole 'living fossil' idea in the first place, and employed a phylogenetic tree that we generated last year with Fabien Condamine, Remi Allio, and Nathan Mazet

a circular tree of cycads, shwoing examples of both extant and fossil cycad leaves

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 02/03/2024

I am positively impressed by the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin! Their cycad collection is quite stunning, and their Wood's cycad is healthy (and huge!) 🌱🌾🧪

cycad biologist Mario being surprised by the large and healthy specimen of Encephalartos woodii cultivated in the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland in Dublin

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

my google scholar word cloud is quite striking. I am not suprised I struggle to find a job with such a mish mash... 🧪🌾

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 29/01/2024

"The same kind of relation that common ostrich bears to (Petisse & diff kinds of Fourmillier): extinct Guanaco to recent: in former case position, in latter time. " Charles Darwin, Red Notebook

A lesser Rhea (ñandu petisso) in the patagonian scrubland at Punta Tombo, Chubut, Argentina

Guanacos grazing in the patagonian scrubland in Punta Tombo, Chubut, Argentina

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 27/12/2023

my candidate is the transitional Nelumbonaceous fossil Notocyamus hydrophobus, from the Early Cretaceous Crato formation in Brazil , by the amazing @rebdart.bsky.social.

Reconstruction of the Nelumbo-like fossil plant Notocyamus hydrophobus, from the Early Cretaceous Crato formation, by the artist Rebecca Dart

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 17/12/2023

I just discovered that one of my botanical 'heroes', Agnes Robertson Arber, published her first paper on cycads! She was a botanist and philosopher of science with a unique an deep perspective on science, and it is an honor to have her amongst the ranks of the cycadologists!

title of Agnes Robertson Arber first work, titled "Notes on the anatomy of Macrozamia heteromera Moore", published in the Transaction of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1902

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

no Halloween for me this year. Hopefully next year my wife and I can go back into it! This is her as Delirium from @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 21/10/2023

I agree, Cycadales are heavenly. Though one could argue they are equally hellish...

Fragment of a figure caption reading: Fig. 5 Phylogenetic tree of terpene synthases (TPSs) in gymnosperms: Cupressaceae (red diamonds), Pinaceae (black), Taxaceae (green), Ginkgoaceae (brown) and Cycadaceae (heavenly).

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

Hi, I am Mario, a paleobotany postdoc currently in Vienna. I work on seed plant macroevolution integrating fossils, phylogenies, anatomy, and ecophysiology.

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

what a fantastic tool! Here is the word cloud based on my publications. Quite heterogeneous!

Cloud of words in various colors and sizes. Some of the largest words include early evolution starch fossil morphology cycad angiosperms evidence zamiaceae development pollen evolutionary arabidopsis phylogeny insights plant family plants cycadales reveals signal

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 23/09/2023

since I am starting to be active here, an intro is due: I am a postdoc in Paleobotany in Vienna, working on plant macroevolution with a focus on late Mesozoic seed plants (with a particular fondness for Cycads) . I am also into beer, wine, board games, food, and music.

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Mario Coiro @lepidodendron.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

Yeah I’m religious. I believe in the holy trinity.

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