Now that it is officially fall and the Ginkgo leaves are beginning to turn yellow and drop, everyone at Fossil Atmospheres wants to take a moment to thank all of you for your willingness to be part of the team that successfully captured a geographically diverse moment in time for Ginkgo biloba. We have received over 320 packages containing over 550 individual samples, making Fossil Atmospheres more successful than we hoped it could be!

We intended for most of the samples to come from the United States; thanks to you we received samples from 40 states in the Continental USA. We also got samples from 5 foreign countries: Canada, France, Romania, the Ukraine, and Japan. That is a great geographic dataset and we love it!

Thanks for following our scientific protocol. We appreciate that you took the time to take pictures, collect the data on the tree, and navigate the iNaturalist interface to link all that data to the project. Most of the samples have all of the information we requested. Thanks for being so thorough! Some of the samples still need a bit more information. We will add a comment on the iNaturalist record asking for some clarification if it is needed. Keep an eye out for that in the next couple of weeks.

Next up the research team will commence processing the samples, and will produce images that allow for cells and stomata to be counted. To keep up with that next stage of the project and even help a bit, check out the Fossil Atmospheres Zooniverse site at https://www.si.edu/fossil-atmospheres

All the best and happy fall!

Rich Barclay, Principal Investigator
Laura Soul, co-Principal Investigator
Heather Killen, Citizen Science Coordinator
and the rest of Fossil Atmospheres Team
Department of Paleobiology

https://www.si.edu/fossil-atmospheres
NMNH-Fossil-Atmospheres@si.edu
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY