Journal ArticleDOI
Paleoecology of Late Paleozoic pteridosperms from tropical Euramerica1
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DiMichele et al. as mentioned in this paper studied the Late Paleozoic pteridosperms, a paraphyletic group of seed plants that were prominent elements of tropical ecosystems, primarily those of wetlands or the wetter portions of seasonally dry environments.Abstract:
DiMichele, W. A. (Department of Paleobiology, NMNH, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560), T. L. Phillips (Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801), and H. W. Pfefferkorn (Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19106). Paleoecology of Late Paleozoic pteridosperms from tropical Euramerica. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 133: 83–118. 2006.— Late Paleozoic pteridosperms are a paraphyletic group of seed plants that were prominent elements of tropical ecosystems, primarily those of wetlands or the wetter portions of seasonally dry environments. Because the group is more a tradition-based, historical construct than a well circumscribed phylogenetic lineage, the wide variance in ecological roles and ecomorphological attributes should not be surprising. Pteridosperms can be the dominant canopy trees in local habitats, prominent understory trees, scrambling ground cover, thicket-formers, or liana-like plants and vines. Some s...read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The evolution of seeds
TL;DR: The recent flurry of research describing the comparative biology of seeds is discussed, and a special emphasis on the evolution of dormancy, the characteristic of seeds that allows for long 'distance' time travel is placed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Pteridosperms are the backbone of seed-plant phylogeny
Jason Hilton,Richard M. Bateman +1 more
TL;DR: These five extant groups were embedded in the derived half of a morphologically diverse spectrum of extinct taxa that strongly influenced tree topology and elucidated patterns of acquisition of morphological character-states, demonstrating that pteridosperms and other more derived “stem-group” Gymnosperms are critical for understanding seed-plant relationships.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate and vegetational regime shifts in the late Paleozoic ice age earth
TL;DR: The oscillatory transition between humid and seasonally dry vegetation appears to demonstrate a threshold-like behavior but probably not repeated transitions between alternative stable states, whereas changes in dominance in lowland equatorial regions were driven by long-term, repetitive climatic oscillations.
Journal ArticleDOI
The evolution of water transport in plants: an integrated approach.
TL;DR: This review examines the evolution of the plant vascular system from its beginnings in the green algae to modern arborescent plants, highlighting the recent advances in developmental, organismal, geochemical and climatological research that have contributed to the authors' understanding of the development of xylem.
Journal ArticleDOI
Angiosperms helped put the rain in the rainforests: the impact of plant physiological evolution on tropical biodiversity
TL;DR: The evolution and rise to ecological dominance of flowering plants are proposed to have strongly altered climate, and lineage diversifications among vertebrate and invertebrate animals and nonangiospermous plants in the wake of the angiosperm radiation may be tied to the unprecedented impact of angiosperms on climate.
References
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