An introduction to the Rhynie chert, the hidden gem of Scottish geology

The Rhynie chert is the earliest fossilised terrestrial ecosystem preserving a diversity of Early Devonian plants, animal, fungi and microbes. Frozen in time for 407 million years it ranks as one of the most important fossils sites in the world and is named after the village it was discovered near, Rhynie, in Aberdeenshire. The aim of the talk is to provide an overview of the Rhynie chert, the hidden gem of Scottish geology, and to highlight how 100 years after its discovery, fossils from the site are still transforming our understanding of early life on land.
Sandy Hetherington studied an MSci in Geology at the University of Bristol and became fascinated by the evolution of land plants. He then moved to the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford to undertake his DPhil with Prof Liam Dolan on the evolution of lycophyte roots. His thesis was awarded the Irene Manton Prize in 2018 for the best thesis in Botany by the Linnean Society. After his DPhil he remained in Oxford, first as a postdoctoral researcher and then a Junior Research Fellow at Magdalen College continuing his work on root evolution. In October 2020 he moved to the Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh to establish his research group supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. The current focus of Sandy’s research is to understand the key innovations that enabled plants to thrive on land, with a special focus on the origin and evolution of the foot transport tissue in plants called the phloem.

[@thefeelingbelief3904]

Thank you for your fascinating talk. I came here after reading of Rhynie in the new book "Otherworlds". You are a very gifted speaker.

[@RNAxRibose]

im writing a college assignmemt about rhynie cherts insects. Gonna read that chapter now. what an alien world

[@alaskajdw]

Thanks for sharing this. Greetings from Arizona !

[@Langkowski]

What I think is the most interesting is how complex the gametophytes were. They have both stomata and vascular tissue. The present day bryophyte gametophytes (and sporophytes) are very redused compared to some of these ancient plants.

[@vinny184]

Could the root cap in lycophytes be a product of horizontal gene transfer from a monilophyte or spermatophyte, especially because we know of the mycorrhizal fungi forming networks between roots of different plants and the importance of hgt in the survival of groups of modern plants where most or all of their relatives lacking those genes didn’t survive?

[@Dave7heRave]

Wow... very interesting! Thanks for all that info. I can't believe I was so close to this recently but had no idea of its existence then. Its on the opposite side of scotland from where I live so will be a while before I can see this in person. No digging is permitted I'm assuming?

[@geoffgeoff143]

I find the trend to have the presenter on camera in the corner annoying and distracting. Have them there for the first 30 seconds only.