Fire-adapted Gondwanan Angiosperm floras evolved in the Cretaceous.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Fires have been widespread over the last 250 million years, peaking 60-125 million years ago (Ma), and might therefore have played a key role in the evolution of Angiosperms. Yet it is commonly believed that fireprone communities existed only after the global climate became more arid and seasonal 15 Ma. Recent molecular-based studies point to much earlier origins of fireprone Angiosperm floras in Australia and South Africa (to 60 Ma, Paleocene) but even these were constrained by the ages of the clades examined.

Results

Using a molecular-dated phylogeny for the great Gondwanan family Proteaceae, with a 113-million-year evolutionary history, we show that the ancestors of many of its characteristic sclerophyll genera, such as Protea, Conospermum, Leucadendron, Petrop

SUBMITTER: Lamont BB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3534566 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature