Journal ArticleDOI
Establishing a time-scale for plant evolution
TLDR
A post-Jurassic origin of angiosperms and a post-Cambrian origin of land plants are rejected, and it is suggested that the establishment of the major embryophyte lineages occurred at a much slower tempo than suggested in most previous studies.Abstract:
• Plants have utterly transformed the planet, but testing hypotheses of causality requires a reliable time-scale for plant evolution. While clock methods have been extensively developed, less attention has been paid to the correct interpretation and appropriate implementation of fossil data. • We constructed 17 calibrations, consisting of minimum constraints and soft maximum constraints, for divergences between model representatives of the major land plant lineages. Using a data set of seven plastid genes, we performed a cross-validation analysis to determine the consistency of the calibrations. Six molecular clock analyses were then conducted, one with the original calibrations, and others exploring the impact on divergence estimates of changing maxima at basal nodes, and prior probability densities within calibrations. • Cross-validation highlighted Tracheophyta and Euphyllophyta calibrations as inconsistent, either because their soft maxima were overly conservative or because of undetected rate variation. Molecular clock analyses yielded estimates ranging from 568-815 million yr before present (Ma) for crown embryophytes and from 175-240 Ma for crown angiosperms. • We reject both a post-Jurassic origin of angiosperms and a post-Cambrian origin of land plants. Our analyses also suggest that the establishment of the major embryophyte lineages occurred at a much slower tempo than suggested in most previous studies. These conclusions are entirely compatible with current palaeobotanical data, although not necessarily with their interpretation by palaeobotanists.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
A metacalibrated time-tree documents the early rise of flowering plant phylogenetic diversity
TL;DR: This time-frame documents an early phylogenetic proliferation that led to the establishment of major angiosperm lineages, and the origin of over half of extant families, in the Cretaceous.
Journal Article
Accounting for calibration uncertainty in phylogenetic estimation of evolutionary divergence times
TL;DR: A variety of local and relaxed clock methods have been proposed and implemented for phylogenetic divergence dating as discussed by the authors, which allows different molecular clocks in different parts of the phylogenetic tree, thereby retaining the advantages of the classical molecular clock while casting off the restrictive assumption of a single, global rate of substitution.
Journal ArticleDOI
Best practices for justifying fossil calibrations
James F. Parham,James F. Parham,James F. Parham,Philip C. J. Donoghue,Christopher J. Bell,Tyler Calway,Jason J. Head,Patricia A. Holroyd,Jun G. Inoue,Randall B. Irmis,Walter G. Joyce,Daniel T. Ksepka,Daniel T. Ksepka,José S. L. Patané,Nathan D. Smith,Nathan D. Smith,James E. Tarver,James E. Tarver,Marcel van Tuinen,Ziheng Yang,Kenneth D. Angielczyk,Jenny M. Greenwood,Christy A. Hipsley,Christy A. Hipsley,Louis L. Jacobs,Peter J. Makovicky,Johannes Müller,Krister T. Smith,Jessica M. Theodor,Rachel C. M. Warnock,Michael J. Benton +30 more
TL;DR: A specimen-based protocol for selecting and documenting relevant fossils is presented and future directions for evaluating and utilizing phylogenetic and temporal data from the fossil record are discussed, to establish the best practices for justifying fossils used for the temporal calibration of molecular phylogenies.
Journal ArticleDOI
The timescale of early land plant evolution
Jennifer L. Morris,Mark N. Puttick,James W. Clark,Dianne Edwards,Paul Kenrick,Silvia Pressel,Charles H. Wellman,Ziheng Yang,Ziheng Yang,Harald Schneider,Philip C. J. Donoghue +10 more
TL;DR: A timescale for early land plant evolution that integrates over topological uncertainty by exploring the impact of competing hypotheses on bryophyte−tracheophyte relationships, among other variables, on divergence time estimation is established.
Journal ArticleDOI
Estimating divergence times in large molecular phylogenies
Koichiro Tamura,Fabia U. Battistuzzi,Fabia U. Battistuzzi,Paul Billing-Ross,Oscar Murillo,Alan Filipski,Sudhir Kumar +6 more
TL;DR: RelTime is presented, a method that estimates relative times of divergences for all branching points (nodes) in very large phylogenetic trees without assuming a specific model for lineage rate variation or specifying any clock calibrations.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Early Cretaceous angiosperm pollen from a low-latitude succession (Araripe Basin, NE Brazil).
TL;DR: The co-occurrence of moisture-loving ferns andEarly angiosperm pollen may support the hypothesis that early angiosperms evolved and diversified in moist and shady disturbed habitats near the palaeoequator.
Journal ArticleDOI
Reproductive Structure and Organization of Basal Angiosperms from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian or Aptian) of Western Portugal
TL;DR: Evidence is beginning to emerge that those lineages identified as basal among angiosperms in phylogenetic analyses (recently referred to as the ANITA grade of basal magnoliids) were already well represented in the Early Cretaceous, at which time they were probably more diverse than they are today.
Book ChapterDOI
Palynological correlation of major Pennsylvanian (Middle and Upper Carboniferous) chronostratigraphic boundaries in the Illinois and other coal basins
Journal ArticleDOI
Molecular data from 27 proteins do not support a Precambrian origin of land plants
TL;DR: This paper presents an analysis of an entirely different set of sequence data from 27 plastid protein-coding genes in 10 land plants and a green algal outgroup that leads to estimates ranging from 425 to 490 mya, which brackets the age suggested by the fossil record.
Journal ArticleDOI
Hepatic characters in the earliest land plants
TL;DR: A minute coal-ified fossil from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian: micrornatus-newportensis Spore Biozone) of the Welsh Borderland is described, which contains obligate, smooth-walled tetrahedral tetrads similar to those first recorded in the Ordovician.
Related Papers (5)
Relaxed Phylogenetics and Dating with Confidence
The age and diversification of the angiosperms re-revisited
Bayesian Estimation of Species Divergence Times Under a Molecular Clock Using Multiple Fossil Calibrations with Soft Bounds
Ziheng Yang,Bruce Rannala +1 more