All Stories

  1. Synchrotron data reveal nautiloid characters in Pohlsepia mazonensis , refuting a Palaeozoic origin for octobrachians

    Article • Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, April 2026, Royal Society Publishing

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  2.  Rethinking fieldwork as a learning environment: lessons from a reflective case study on inclusive geoscience field education

    Article • March 2026, Copernicus GmbH

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  3. A new occurrence of saprotrophic oomycetes from the ca 307–303 million-years-old Grand’Croix Chert (Massif central, France)

    Article • iScience, February 2026, Elsevier

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  4. Early evolutionary history of the seed

    Article • Biological Reviews, January 2026, Wiley

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  5. TREvoSim v3: An individual based simulation for generating trees and character data

    Article • The Journal of Open Source Software, September 2024, The Open Journal

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  6. A fungal plant pathogen discovered in the Devonian Rhynie Chert

    Article • Nature Communications, December 2023, Springer Science + Business Media

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer, Christine Strullu-Derrien

  7. Quantitative constraints on flood variability in the rock record

    Article • Nature Communications, June 2023, Springer Science + Business Media

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  8. New evidence of the architecture and affinity of fossil trees from the Jurassic Purbeck Forest of southern England

    Article • Botany Letters, April 2023, Taylor & Francis

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  9. The Carboniferous (Serpukhovian) macroflora from the “Coteaux du Pont Barré”, Beaulieu-sur-Layon (Maine-et-Loire), South of the Armorican Massif, France

    Article • Botany Letters, March 2023, Taylor & Francis

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  10. Advanced techniques for the study of plant interactions with Fungi and other microorganisms in early environments 

    Article • February 2023, Copernicus GmbH

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  11. Revisions to the Eocene carpoflora of Anjou, western France, with new data from X-ray tomography

    Article • Botany Letters, August 2022, Taylor & Francis

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  12. The 330–320 Million-Year-Old Tranchée des Malécots (Chaudefonds-sur-Layon, South of the Armorican Massif, France): a Rare Geoheritage Site Containing In Situ Palaeobotanical Remains

    Article • Geoheritage, March 2022, Springer Science + Business Media

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  13. Correlative tomography of an exceptionally preserved Jurassic ammonite implies hyponome-propelled swimming

    Article • Geology, December 2021, Geological Society of America

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  14. An expanded diversity of oomycetes in Carboniferous forests: Reinterpretation of Oochytrium lepidodendri (Renault 1894) from the Esnost chert, Massif Central, France

    Article • PLOS One, March 2021, PLOS

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer, Christine Strullu-Derrien

  15. A rare late Mississippian flora from Northwestern Europe (Maine-et-Loire Coalfield, Pays de la Loire, France)

    Article • Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, February 2021, Elsevier

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  16. Hydrasperman pteridosperm ovules from the Permian of China: palaeoecological and palaeobiogeographic implications

    Article • Historical Biology, January 2021, Taylor & Francis

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  17. The overlooked aquatic green algal component of early terrestrial environments: Triskelia scotlandica gen. et sp. nov. from the Rhynie cherts

    Article • Papers in Palaeontology, March 2020, Wiley

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  18. On the structure and chemistry of fossils of the earliest woody plant

    Article • Palaeontology, July 2019, Wiley

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  19. An introduction to the Rhynie chert

    Article • Geological Magazine, July 2019, Cambridge University Press

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  20. RE voSim: Organism‐level simulation of macro and microevolution

    Article • Palaeontology, February 2019, Wiley

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  21. Exploring the potential of neutron imaging for life sciences on IMAT

    Article • Journal of Microscopy, October 2018, Wiley

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  22. New insights into the evolutionary history of Fungi from a 407 Ma Blastocladiomycota fossil showing a complex hyphal thallus

    Article • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, December 2017, Royal Society Publishing

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  23. New insights into Mesozoic cycad evolution: an exploration of anatomically preserved Cycadaceae seeds from the Jurassic Oxford Clay biota

    Article • PeerJ, August 2017, PeerJ

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  24. Anatomically preserved “strobili” and leaves from the Permian of China (Dorsalistachyaceae, fam. nov.) broaden knowledge of Noeggerathiales and constrain their possible taxonomic affinities

    Article • American Journal of Botany, January 2017, Wiley

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  25. Almost a spider: a 305-million-year-old fossil arachnid and spider origins

    Article • Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, March 2016, Royal Society Publishing

    Dr Russell J Garwood, Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  26. Middle Jurassic evidence for the origin of Cupressaceae: A paleobotanical context for the roles of regulatory genetics and development in the evolution of conifer seed cones

    Article • American Journal of Botany, June 2015, Wiley

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  27. X-ray Synchrotron Microtomography of a silicified Jurassic Cheirolepidiaceae (Conifer) cone: histology and morphology of Pararaucaria collinsonae sp. nov.

    Article • PeerJ, October 2014, PeerJ

    Dr Russell J Garwood, Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  28. Species of the medullosan ovule Stephanospermum from the Lopingian (late Permian) floras of China

    Article • Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, October 2013, Elsevier

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer

  29. Combined methodologies for three-dimensional reconstruction of fossil plants preserved in siderite nodules: Stephanospermum braidwoodensis nov. sp. (Medullosales) from the Mazon Creek lagerstätte

    Article • Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, January 2013, Elsevier

    Dr Alan R.T. Spencer