Diversification of land plants: insights from a family-level phylogenetic analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Some of the evolutionary history of land plants has been documented based on the fossil record and a few broad-scale phylogenetic analyses, especially focusing on angiosperms and ferns. Here, we reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among all 706 families of land plants using molecular data. We dated the phylogeny using multiple fossils and a molecular clock technique. Applying various tests of diversification that take into account topology, branch length, numbers of extant species as well as extinction, we evaluated diversification rates through time. We also compared these diversification profiles against the distribution of the climate modes of the Phanerozoic.

Results

We found evidence for the radiations of ferns and mosses in the shadow of angiosperms coi

SUBMITTER: Fiz-Palacios O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3227728 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature