Maria A. Gandolfo

Phylogenetic biome conservatism on a global scale

How and why organisms are distributed as they are has long intrigued evolutionary biologists. The tendency for species to retain their ancestral ecology has been demonstrated in distributions on local and regional scales, but the extent of ecological conservatism over tens of millions of years and across continents has not been assessed. Here we show that biome stasis at speciation has outweighed biome shifts by a ratio of more than 25:1, by inferring ancestral biomes for an ecologically diverse sample of more than 11,000 plant species from around the Southern Hemisphere. Stasis was also prevalent in transocean colonizations. Availability of a suitable biome could have substantially influenced which lineages establish on more than one landmass, in addition to the influence of the rarity of the dispersal events themselves. Conversely, the taxonomic composition of biomes has probably been strongly influenced by the rarity of species’ transitions between biomes. This study has implications for the future because if clades have inherently limited capacity to shift biomes, then their evolutionary potential could be strongly compromised by biome contraction as climate changes.

Fossil evidence and phylogeny: the age of major angiosperm clades based on mesofossil and macrofossil evidence from Cretaceous deposits.

The fossil record has played an important role in the history of evolutionary thought, has aided the determination of key relationships through mosaics, and has allowed an assessment of a number of ecological hypotheses. Nonetheless, expectations that it might accurately and precisely mirror the progression of taxa through time seem optimistic in light of the many factors potentially interfering with uniform preservation. In view of these limitations, attempts to use the fossil record to corroborate phylogenetic hypotheses based on extensive comparisons among extant taxa may be misplaced. Instead we suggest a method-minimum age node mapping-for combining reliable fossil evidence with hypotheses of phylogeny. We use this methodology in conjunction with a phylogeny for angiosperms to assess timing in the history of major angiosperm clades. This method places many clades both with and without fossil records in temporal perspective, reveals discrepancies among clades in propensities for preservation, and raises some interesting questions about angiosperm evolution. By providing a context for understanding the gaps in the angiosperm fossil record this technique lends credibility and support to the remainder of the angiosperm record and to its applications in understanding a variety of aspects of angiosperm history. In effect, this methodology empowers the fossil record.

A Phylogeny of the Monocots, as Inferred from rbcL and atpA Sequence Variation, and a Comparison of Methods for Calculating Jackknife and Bootstrap Values

Abstract A phylogenetic analysis of the monocots was conducted on the basis of nucleotide sequence variation in two genes (atpA, encoded in the mitochondrial genome, and rbcL, encoded in the plastid genome). The taxon sample of 218 angiosperm terminals included 177 monocots and 41 dicots. Among the major results of the analysis are the resolution of a clade comprising four magnoliid lineages (Canellales, Piperales, Magnoliales, and Laurales) as sister of the monocots, with the deepest branch within the monocots between a clade consisting of Araceae, Tofieldiaceae, Acorus, and Alismatales, and a clade that includes all other monocots. Nartheciaceae are placed as the sister of Pandanales, and Corsiaceae as the sister of Liliales. The Triuridaceae, represented by three genera, including Lacandonia, are resolved as monophyletic and placed in a range of positions, generally within Pandanales. Dasypogonaceae and Arecaceae diverge sequentially from a clade that includes all other commelinid taxa, and within the latter group Poales s. lat. are sister of a clade in which Zingiberales and Commelinales are sisters. Within Poales s. lat., Trithuria (Hydatellaceae) and Mayaca appear to be closely related to some or all elements of Xyridaceae. A comparison was conducted of jackknife and bootstrap values, as computed using strict-consensus (SC) and frequency-within-replicates (FWR) approaches. Jackknife values tend to be higher than bootstrap values, and for each of these methods support values obtained with the FWR approach tend to exceed those obtained with the SC approach.

Eocene Plant Diversity at Laguna del Hunco and Rio Pichileufu ´ , Patagonia, Argentina

The origins of South America’s exceptional plant diversity are poorly known from the fossil record. We report on unbiased quantitative collections of fossil floras from Laguna del Hunco (LH) and Río Pichileufú (RP) in Patagonia, Argentina. These sites represent a frost‐free humid biome in South American middle latitudes of the globally warm Eocene. At LH, from 4,303 identified specimens, we recognize 186 species of plant organs and 152 species of leaves. Adjusted for sample size, the LH flora is more diverse than comparable Eocene floras known from other continents. The RP flora shares several taxa with LH and appears to be as rich, although sampling is preliminary. The two floras were previously considered coeval. However, 40Ar/39Ar dating of three ash‐fall tuff beds in close stratigraphic association with the RP flora indicates an age of \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape

A new fossil flower from the Turonian of New Jersey: Dressiantha bicarpellata gen. et sp. nov. (Capparales).

47.46\pm 0.05

Oldest Known Eucalyptus Macrofossils Are from South America

\end{document} Ma, 4.5 million years younger than LH, for which one tuff is reanalyzed here as \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape

Ontologies as integrative tools for plant science

51.91\pm 0.22