Spatial distribution patterns and formation of global spermatophytes.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of spermatophytes (seed plants) is relatively well known in their evolutionary relationships over temporal changes, but their spatial evolution is another critical yet often neglected lens, especially using a taxon-based approach. Here, by integrating geographic distributions and origin locations across 429 spermatophyte families worldwide with unsupervised machine learning approaches, we constructed a Spermatophyte Spatial Evolutionary System (SSES) that classifies global spermatophytes into 18 distribution types and six distribution supertypes within three primary floristic elements: cosmopolitan, tropical, and temperate. We found that the three elements all primarily originated from Gondwana, with the cosmopolitan element being the youngest and the temperate element being

SUBMITTER: Huang XH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12498069 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature