Wetlands biologist Asan Baghevzadeh, grabs a handful of the aquatic azolla plant in the Anzali wetlands on Iran's Caspian Sea coast near Bandar-e-Anzali. ((AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)) Fifty million ...

The Azolla Event was an environmental catastrophe for life in the Eocene era 49 million years ago. Today, though, it is a source of inspiration--even optimism--in dealing with human-driven climate ...

What it’s about: That time that ferns completely upended all life on Earth. Azolla is a freshwater fern often used as fertilizer in rice paddies, but 49 million years ago, it spread so far, and ...

Kathleen Pryer is professor of biology at Duke University and president of the American Fern Society. Fifty million years ago, the Earth was so warm that turtles and alligators thrived in lush forests ...

Fifty million years ago, the Earth was so warm that turtles and alligators thrived in lush forests at the poles. Much of the North Pole was covered in a rather less charismatic life form: the floating ...