LAND PLANT EVOLUTION: MOSSES TO ANGIOSPERMS |
Land plant taxa - Survey of land plant phyla
Bryophyta - hornworts, liverworts, mosses
non-vascular, gametophyyte dominant
Psilophyta - Psilotum
Equisetophyta - horsetails and scouring rushes, Equisetum
Lycopodiaceae - club mosses
Selaginellaceae - spike mosses
Isoetaceae - quillwortsPolypodiophyta - ferns
Eusporangiate ferns (Ophioglossaceae, Marratiaceae)
Leptosporangiate ferns (Osmundaceae, and rest)Pinophyta - gymnosperms
Ginkgo
Cycads
Gnetophytes or Gnetales
Conifers
The great adaptive radiation - plants move onto land
Fossil record - Evolution in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras
Cambrian period (570-510 millions years ago)
Ordovician (510-435 million years ago)
Silurian (435-400 million years ago)
Cooksonia (middle Silurian)
Devonian (400-345 million years ago)
Rhynia
Zosterophyllum - lycopods
first "progymnosperms": Archaeopteris & Aneurophyton
first "seed": Archaeosperma
first ferns: Protopteridium
Adaptation to land
Carboniferous (345-290 million years ago)
Lepidodendron - lycopod
Calamites - horsetail
"glossopterids" - southern hemispherePermian (290-250 million years ago)
ginkgophytes and cone bearing gymnosperms
lycopods and horsetails diminishTriassic (250-205 million years ago)
cycads diversify
Jurassic (205-135 million years ago)
Ginkgo seen
seed ferns diversify
first flowering plantCretaceous (135-65 million years ago)
rise of angiosperms
Molecular phylogeny of land plant phyla
Radiation of bryophytes - which one is most basal? - see phylogeny
Radiation of tracheophytes - the vascular plants - and early radiation of lycopods and monophyly of all other pteridophytes - see phylogeny
Radiation of pteridophytes - horsetails and whisk ferns are ferns! - placed with eusporangiate ferns; the leptosporangiate ferns are monophyletic with Osmundaceae most basal - see phylogeny
Radiation of seed plants - monophyly of gymnosperms - Gnetales now appear to be conifers!- see phylogeny
Radiation of flowering plants - the rest of the course - see phylogeny
