Dianne Edwards

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Professor Dianne Edwards CBE, FRS, FRSE, FLS, FLSW (born 1942 [1] ) is a palaeobotanist, who studies the colonisation of land by plants, and early land plant interactions.

Contents

Early life

Edwards was born in Swansea, South Wales, and spent much of her time at her parents' bungalow on the Gower Peninsula. [2]

Career

Edwards' work has centred on early plant fossils, the majority of which have been retrieved from the UK. [3] Her interest in early plants was initiated after she studied plant fossils preserved in three dimensions in the mineral pyrite (fools' gold). [3]

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. [4] [5]

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, a Corresponding Member of the Botanical Society of America, and has links with China, consulting for the Beijing Museum of Natural History, and working on fossils from that country. [6]

Discoveries

Among Edwards's most notable works, are the discovery of vascular tissue in Cooksonia , [7] the description and analysis of stomata in early land plants, [8] and very early liverwort-like plants. [9] The charcoalified nature of many of her fossils have enabled her to prove that wildfires took place in the Siluruan period. [10] She has also worked on several enigmatic fossils such as Nematothallus , [11] Tortilicaulis [12] and Prototaxites . [13]

She is the author or co-author of a considerable number of botanical names of fossil plants, such as Danziella D.Edwards (2006) [14] and Demersatheca C.-S. Li & D.Edwards (1996). [15]

The standard author abbreviation D.Edwards is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [16]

Distinctions

Related Research Articles

<i>Cooksonia</i> Group of vascular land plants (extinct)

Cooksonia is an extinct group of primitive land plants, treated as a genus, although probably not monophyletic. The earliest Cooksonia date from the middle of the Silurian ; the group continued to be an important component of the flora until the end of the Early Devonian, a total time span of 433 to 393 million years ago. While Cooksonia fossils are distributed globally, most type specimens come from Britain, where they were first discovered in 1937. Cooksonia includes the oldest known plant to have a stem with vascular tissue and is thus a transitional form between the primitive non-vascular bryophytes and the vascular plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zosterophyll</span> Group of extinct land plants that first appeared in the Silurian period

The zosterophylls are a group of extinct land plants that first appeared in the Silurian period. The taxon was first established by Banks in 1968 as the subdivision Zosterophyllophytina; they have since also been treated as the division Zosterophyllophyta or Zosterophyta and the class or plesion Zosterophyllopsida or Zosteropsida. They were among the first vascular plants in the fossil record, and had a world-wide distribution. They were probably stem-group lycophytes, forming a sister group to the ancestors of the living lycophytes. By the late Silurian a diverse assemblage of species existed, examples of which have been found fossilised in what is now Bathurst Island in Arctic Canada.

<i>Protosalvinia</i> Devonian fossil plant of uncertain affinity

Protosalvinia is a prehistoric plant found commonly in shale from shoreline habitats of the Upper Devonian period. The name Protosalvinia is a misnomer. The name literally means early Salvinia, and was given in the erroneous belief that the fossils were an earlier form of the living aquatic fern Salvinia. It is no longer believed that the fossils come from a fern, but deciding exactly what the fossils represent is still a matter of debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isabel Clifton Cookson</span> Australian botanist and palaeobotanist (1893–1973)

Isabel Clifton Cookson was an Australian botanist who specialised in palaeobotany and palynology.

<i>Prototaxites</i> Extinct genus of fungi

Prototaxites is a genus of terrestrial fossil fungi dating from the Middle Ordovician until the Late Devonian periods, approximately 470 to 360 million years ago. Prototaxites formed small to large trunk-like structures up to 1 metre (3 ft) wide, reaching 8 metres (26 ft) in length, made up of interwoven tubes around 50 micrometres (0.0020 in) in diameter, making it by far the largest land-dwelling organism of its time.

<i>Tortilicaulis</i> Extinct genus of Devonian plants

Tortilicaulis is a moss-like plant known from fossils recovered from southern Britain, spanning the Silurian-Devonian boundary. Originally recovered from the Downtonian of the Welsh borderlands, Tortilicaulis has since been recovered in the famous Ludlow Lane locality.

<i>Nematothallus</i> A form genus comprising cuticle-like fossils

Nematothallus is a form genus comprising cuticle-like fossils. Some of its constituents likely represent red algae, whereas others resemble lichens.

<i>Cosmochlaina</i> Extinct genus of Devonian plants

Cosmochlaina is a form genus of nematophyte – an early plant known only from fossil cuticles, often found in association with tubular structures. The form genus was put forwards by Dianne Edwards, and is diagnosed by inwards-pointing flanges and randomly oriented pseudo-cellular units. Projections on the outer surface are always present, and sometimes also appear on the inner surface; however, the surface of the cuticle itself is always smooth. The holes in the cuticle are often covered by round flaps, loosely attached along a side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polysporangiophyte</span> Spore-bearing plants with branched sporophytes

Polysporangiophytes, also called polysporangiates or formally Polysporangiophyta, are plants in which the spore-bearing generation (sporophyte) has branching stems (axes) that bear sporangia. The name literally means 'many sporangia plant'. The clade includes all land plants (embryophytes) except for the bryophytes whose sporophytes are normally unbranched, even if a few exceptional cases occur. While the definition is independent of the presence of vascular tissue, all living polysporangiophytes also have vascular tissue, i.e., are vascular plants or tracheophytes. Extinct polysporangiophytes are known that have no vascular tissue and so are not tracheophytes.

<i>Rhynia</i> Extinct species of vascular plant

Rhynia is a single-species genus of Devonian vascular plants. Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii was the sporophyte generation of a vascular, axial, free-sporing diplohaplontic embryophytic land plant of the Early Devonian that had anatomical features more advanced than those of the bryophytes. Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii was a member of a sister group to all other eutracheophytes, including modern vascular plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Gilbert Chaloner</span> British paleobotanist (1928–2016)

William Gilbert Chaloner FRS was a British palaeobotanist. He was Professor of Botany in the Earth Sciences Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Visiting Professor in Earth Sciences at University College, London.

<i>Salopella</i> Extinct genus of Devonian plants

Salopella is a form genus for small fossil plants of Late Silurian to Early Devonian age. The diagnostic characters are naked axes branching isotomously, terminating in fusiform sporangia. The sporangia are unbranched, but in at least the type species the axes seem to branch just under the sporangia. It differs from the similar form genus Tortilicaulis in that the sporangia do not have spirally arranged cells, and from other similar form genera such as Cooksonia, Uskiella and Tarrantia in the shape of the sporangia.

Grisellatheca was a genus of land plant with branching axes. It is known from charcoalified Early Devonian deposits, its type locality being the Brown Clee Hill lagerstatten. Its Terahedraletes spores form permanent tetrads.

Fusitheca was a genus of land plant with branching axes. It is known from charcoalified Early Devonian deposits, its type locality being the Brown Clee Hill lagerstätten. Its spores form smooth-walled, unfused, naked dyads. Its axis comprises length-parallel filaments, and their dichotomies are T-shaped, with the branches bending to continue upwards.

Culullitheca was a genus of land plant with branching axes. It is known from charcoalified Early Devonian deposits, its type locality being the Brown Clee Hill lagerstätten. Its spores formed permanent dyads.

Resilitheca is a genus of land plant known from kidney-shaped sporangia. It is known from charcoalified Early Devonian deposits, its type locality being the Brown Clee Hill lagerstätten. It was listed as a rhyniophyte by Hao and Xue in 2013.

Sporathylacium was a genus of land plant known from its bivalved sporangia. It is known from charcoalified Early Devonian deposits, its type locality being the Brown Clee Hill lagerstätten. It was listed as a rhyniophyte by Hao and Xue in 2013.

Aberlemnia is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early Devonian, which consisted of leafless stems with terminal spore-forming organs (sporangia). Fossils found in Scotland were initially described as Cooksonia caledonica. A later review, which included new and more complete fossils from Brazil, showed that the specimens did not fit the circumscription of the genus Cooksonia; accordingly a new genus Aberlemnia was proposed.

Psilophytites is a form genus of extinct plants; it was created by Høeg for spiny stems (axes) which cannot be assigned to a more precise genus or species, usually because spore-forming organs or sporangia are not present.

Sir Robert Hughes Williams,, commonly known as Robin Williams, is a Welsh physicist and academic, specialising in solid state physics and semiconductors. He was Vice-Chancellor of University of Wales, Swansea from 1994 to 2003. He had taught at the New University of Ulster and University of Wales, College of Cardiff, before joining Swansea.

References

  1. ↑ Entry: D. Edwards. Index of Botanists, Harvard University Herbarium, retrieved 16 December 2017
  2. ↑ Walton, Adam (27 March 2012). "Prof. Dianne Edwards". BBC – Wales – Radio Wales – Science Cafe. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Professor Dianne Edwards FRS – The first plants
  4. ↑ "Professor Dianne Edwards - People - Cardiff University". Cardiff University. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  5. ↑ "Professor Dianne Edwards CBE PhD, ScD(Cantab) FRSE, FLS, FLSE, FLSW, FRS". WISRNet, Women in Science Research Network. 2015.
  6. 1 2 Professor Dianne Edwards
  7. ↑ Edwards, D.; Davies, K. L.; Axe, L. (1992). "A vascular conducting strand in the early land plant Cooksonia". Nature. 357 (6380): 683–685. Bibcode:1992Natur.357..683E. doi:10.1038/357683a0. S2CID   4264332.
  8. ↑ Edwards, D.; Kerp, H.; Hass, H. (1998). "Stomata in early land plants: an anatomical and ecophysiological approach". Journal of Experimental Botany. 49 (Special Issue): 255–278. doi:10.1093/jexbot/49.suppl_1.255.
  9. ↑ Edwards, D.; Duckett, J. G.; Richardson, J. B. (1995). "Hepatic characters in the earliest land plants". Nature. 374 (6523): 635–636. Bibcode:1995Natur.374..635E. doi:10.1038/374635a0. S2CID   4361385.
  10. ↑ Glasspool, I. J.; Edwards, D.; Axe, L. (2004). "Charcoal in the Silurian as evidence for the earliest wildfire". Geology. 32 (5): 381–383. Bibcode:2004Geo....32..381G. doi:10.1130/G20363.1.
  11. ↑ Edwards, D.; Rose, V. (1984). "Cuticles of Nematothallus: a further enigma". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 88 (1–2): 35–54. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1984.tb01563.x.
  12. ↑ Edwards, D. (1979). "A late Silurian flora from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of south-west Dyfed". Palaeontology. 22: 23–52.
  13. ↑ Burgess, N. D.; Edwards, D. (1988). "A new Palaeozoic plant closely allied to Prototaxites Dawson". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 97 (2): 189–203. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1988.tb02461.x.
  14. ↑ Edwards, Dianne (2006), "Danziella artesiana, a new name for Zosterophyllum artesianum from the Lower Devonian of Artois, northern France", Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 142 (3–4): 93–101, doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2006.04.008
  15. ↑ Li, C.-S. & Edwards, D. (1996), "Demersatheca Li et Edwards, gen. nov., a new genus of early land plants from the Lower Devonian, Yunnan Province, China", Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 93 (1–4): 77–88, doi:10.1016/0034-6667(95)00120-4
  16. ↑ International Plant Names Index.  D.Edwards.
  17. ↑ PalAss at 60 (PDF). The Palaeontological Association. 2017. p. 34.
  18. ↑ "No. 55513". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1999. p. 8.
  19. ↑ "Lyell Medal winners". The Geological Society.
  20. ↑ "Founding Fellows". Learned Society of Wales. Learned Society of Wales. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  21. ↑ "Hans Rosling one of four new honorary doctors at Faculty of Science and Technology – Uppsala University, Sweden". uu.se. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
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