Create your own conference schedule! Click here for full instructions

Abstract Detail

Systematics Section/ASPT

Rothwell, Gar [1], Stevenson, Dennis [2], Escapa, Ignacio [3], Mapes, Gene [1], Stockey, Ruth [4], Ickert-Bond, Stefanie [5], Campbell, Christopher [6], Gernandt, David [7], Holman, Garth [8], Kelch, Dean [9], Little, Damon [10], Mathews, Sarah [11].

The gymnosperm AToL: Results of analysis of morphological characters.

One of the major goals of the gymnosperm AToL has been to develop a comprehensive matrix that utilizes morphological characters of living and fossil taxa that can be included in combined molecular/morphological analyses of seed plants. Additional goals of the morphological work are to explore the role of extinct species in resolving the unstable overall pattern of seed plant phylogeny. We compare results, that either include or exclude extinct species, to test competing hypotheses that have been developed using other sets of characters, and to predict the most fruitful approaches for future phylogenetic studies of clades with a long geological history and high levels of extinction. The current morphological matrix includes 275 taxa (i.e., 198 “core taxa” of living seed plants and 77 extinct species) and 387 characters from all facets of the plant life cycle, and has been analyzed using the parsimony software TNT. Preliminary analyses yield a topology of seed plant relationships that agrees with the anthophyte hypothesis. The general pattern of relationships resolves gnetophytes as the sister to angiosperms, and cycads+ginkgo as the sister group to conifers. Living conifers, gnetophytes, and cycads all resolve as monophyletic. Monophyly of living conifer families is also recovered (Cupressaceae is collapsed when fossils are included), and most living gymnosperm genera are monophyletic. Taxon resampling analyses were performed to test the robustness of relationships among extant groups, and to assess the influence of fossils on those phylogenetic hypotheses.

Broader Impacts:

1 - Ohio University, Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Athens, OH, 45701, USA
2 - THE NY BOTANICAL GARDEN, 2900 SOUTHERN BLVD, BRONX, NY, 10458-5126, USA, 718/817-8632
3 - MEF-CONICET, Fontana 140, Trelew Chubut, N/A, 9100, Argentina
4 - Oregon State University, Department of Biological Sciences, 2082 Cordley Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA
5 - University of Alaska Museum of The North, Herbarium (ALA) And Dept. of Biology And Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 907 Yukon Dr., Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, 9074741510
6 - University of Maine, Department of Biological Sciences, 261 HITCHNER HALL, ORONO, ME, 04469-5735, USA
7 - Instituto De Biologia, UNAM, Apartado Postal 70-233, Coyoacan, Mexico, N/A, 04510, Mexico
8 - University of Maine, School of Biology And Ecology, 5735 Hitchner Hall, Orono, ME, 04469, USA
9 - University of California Berkeley, JEPSON HERBARIUM, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building, #2465, BERKELEY, CA, 94720, USA
10 - New York Botanical Garden, Molecular Systematics, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY, 10458-5126, USA
11 - Harvard University, Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

Keywords:
anthophytes
fossils
morphological characters
seed plants
gymnosperms
seed plant phylogeny.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 37
Location: Belle-Chasse/Riverside Hilton
Date: Wednesday, July 31st, 2013
Time: 8:30 AM
Number: 37001
Abstract ID:351
Candidate for Awards:None