Julia Gravendyckhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7129-1533,^1,2,*,** Robert A. Fensome,^3,*** Clément Coiffardhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4309-074X,^1,**** Julien B. Bachelierhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9472-1615<sup>1,*****

1</sup>Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
²Institut für Geologie, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany
³Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic), Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

^*CONTACT Julia Gravendyck gravendyck@geowi.uni-hannover.de Institut für Geologie, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
^**Julia Gravendyck is a palynologist and botanist at the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. She gained her MSc in 2016 at the Freie Universität Berlin (FU) in biology, specialising in biodiversity, ecology and evolution working on the palynology of the Carnian Stage for a pilot project on carbon capture and storage. In 2021 Julia obtained her doctoral degree at the FU for her palynological work on the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Julia is currently working mainly on terrestrial Mesozoic palynology with special regard to early angiosperm pollen, integrating her botanical and biological perspective with palaeontology. She is involved in projects on palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, vegetation dynamics, teratology, stratigraphy and taxonomy in the Triassic of Germany and Lower Cretaceous of Portugal. Julia is a past Student Director-at-Large of AASP – The Palynological Society, and currently serves on the Board of CPS – Collegium Palynologicum Scandinavicum and AASP – The Palynological Society as Director-at-Large.
^***Robert A. Fensome is a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), part of the federal department of Natural Resources Canada, in their Atlantic Division at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. During his 36-year tenure at the GSC, Rob has focussed mainly on Mesozoic and Cenozoic dinoflagellate cysts from offshore eastern Canada, but is now venturing into projects involving assemblages from north-western and Arctic Canada. While his mandate has involved primarily biostratigraphical and palaeoenvironmental studies, he also has a strong interest in dinoflagellate taxonomy and evolution, miospore taxonomy and geological outreach, co-authoring and co-editing two books for a general audience, one on the geology of Canada and one on the geology of Canada's Maritime Provinces.
^****Clément Coiffard is a botanist at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He obtained his doctoral degree in 2006 at the Lyon I university on the evolution of European vegetation during the Cretaceous with Bernard Gomez. After his PhD, Clément worked on the systematics and phylogeny of Cretaceous tropical early angiosperms. Later, he worked on Upper Cretaceous tropical vegetation, including fieldwork in Sudan. He is involved in projects on taxonomy, phylogeny, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, vegetation dynamics in the Cretaceous of Europe, Brazil and northeastern Africa.
^*****Julien B. Bachelier is a professor of Botany and group leader at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. His curiosity for taxonomy started during his education at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, when he thought he could revise the genus Cupressus during his Diploma. Quickly realizing this would never happen, the interest survived even after he moved into comparative structural studies. Under the supervision of Peter Endress and William (Ned) Friedman, he specialized in flower structure and development and in embryology, and their implications for the systematics and evolution of flowering plants.