The origin and early diversification of land plants: a cladistic study

1998 ◽  
Vol 35 (07) ◽  
pp. 35-3849-35-3849
Keyword(s):  
Land Plants ◽  
Early Diversification

Morphology supports ­the setaphyte hypothesis: mosses plus liverworts form a natural group

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAREN S. RENZAGLIA ◽  
JUAN CARLOS VILLARREAL AGUILAR ◽  
DAVID J. GARBARY
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Food Source ◽  
Cladistic Analysis ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Land Plants ◽  
Taxon Sampling ◽  
Natural Group ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Terrestrial Life ◽  
Fundamental Conclusion

The origin and early diversification of land plants is one of the major unresolved problems in evolutionary biology. Occurring nearly half a billion years ago, the transmigration of green organisms to land changed the landscape and provided the food source for terrestrial life to invade a vast uninhabited space, adapt and radiate. Although bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) are often regarded as the earliest terrestrial organisms, the order of their divergence remains contentious even as molecular analyses become more conclusive with expanded taxon sampling, massive genetic data and more sophisticated methods of analysis (Cox et al. 2018; Morris et al. 2018). Indeed, virtually every combination of relationships among bryophytes has been proposed based on molecules (Qiu et al. 2006; Wickett et al. 2014; Cox et al. 2018). Fortunately, in 2018 it appears that we are approaching a consensus based on molecules, and that is that although bryophytes may or may not be monophyletic, mosses plus liverworts form a natural group (Puttick et al. 2018). In this essay, we point out that this inference is neither new nor surprising as it has been the fundamental conclusion of morphological analyses for over 25 years starting with an exhaustive cladistic analysis of characters associated with motile cell development in green plants (Garbary et al. 1993).

scholarly journals Phylotranscriptomic analysis of the origin and early diversification of land plants

2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (45) ◽  
pp. E4859-E4868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman J. Wickett ◽  
Siavash Mirarab ◽  
Nam Nguyen ◽  
Tandy Warnow ◽  
Eric Carpenter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Plants ◽  
Early Diversification

The Tempo and mode(S) of Prebiotic Evolution

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Lazcano
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
The Origin Of Life

AbstractDifferent current ideas on the origin of life are critically examined. Comparison of the now fashionable FeS/H2S pyrite-based autotrophic theory of the origin of life with the heterotrophic viewpoint suggest that the later is still the most fertile explanation for the emergence of life. However, the theory of chemical evolution and heterotrophic origins of life requires major updating, which should include the abandonment of the idea that the appearance of life was a slow process involving billions of years. Stability of organic compounds and the genetics of bacteria suggest that the origin and early diversification of life took place in a time period of the order of 10 million years. Current evidence suggest that the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds may be a widespread phenomenon in the Galaxy and may have a deterministic nature. However, the history of the biosphere does not exhibits any obvious trend towards greater complexity or «higher» forms of life. Therefore, the role of contingency in biological evolution should not be understimated in the discussions of the possibilities of life in the Universe.

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