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Character diversification and patterns of evolution in early vascular plants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Andrew H. Knoll ,
Karl J. Niklas ,
Patricia G. Gensel  and
Bruce H. Tiffney
Andrew H. Knoll
Affiliation:
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Karl J. Niklas
Affiliation:
Division of Biological Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850
Patricia G. Gensel
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 21514
Bruce H. Tiffney
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
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Abstract

Available data on the stratigraphic ranges of latest Silurian and Devonian vascular plant macro-fossils (sporophytes) and spores provide insights into the tempo and mode of early tracheophyte evolution. Patterns of diversification, origination, and extinction conform in general to the predictions of Sepkoski's kinetic model of diversification. Rates of generic origination and extinction vary not only through time but also between organ systems for a single time interval. This fact, coupled with data on longevity and turnover and comparative morphological observations, can be used to document mosaic evolution in early vascular plant history. Mosaic evolution is an important theme in plant evolution; indeed, what we recognize as macroevolutionary events often correlate with brief periods of pronounced mosaicism. Such evolutionary patterns reflect the developmental biology of tracheophytes in which individual organs often have life spans that are considerably shorter than the life of the whole plant. Under these conditions, individual organs or organ systems can respond to different sets of evolutionary pressures.

The major period of early vascular plant diversification occurred during the late Early and early Middle Devonian Period, 30 Myr or more after the origin of the group. Such lags in diversification are not uncommon in the fossil record. Sometimes they reflect extrinsic controls on diversification, but in other cases they appear to be a consequence of intrinsic rates of origination and extinction.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , Winter 1984 , pp. 34 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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