Lesleya ceriacoi

Lesleya ceriacoi, a new species of primitive gymnosperm known from the Upper Carboniferous of where today is Portugal.

After being stored more than 100 years at the collection of the Museu de História Natural e da Ciência da Universidade do Porto (MHNC-UP), its fossils have now been rediscovered and finally studied, revealing leaves of considerable size and adapted to a drought climate. Its adaptations are innovative among the other dry environment flora it coexisted with, and bring implications for the species evolution in the midst of the climatic changes of its time.

The specific epithet ceriacoi honors the biologist Luis Ceríaco, current Head of Collections and Research of the MHNC-UP and discoverer of several new modern species, especially African reptiles.

At the invitation and supervison of Pedro Correia and other authors, I had the pleasure of producing the reconstructions of the new species!

Check out the article describing Lesleya ceriacoi:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2021.2025364?fbclid=IwAR1AtPVcjQx421ejmwNOJdLrrlqn0fRdYrjwv0YkNuKXxx-UtRUZ7XAW_vY&journalCode=ghbi20