The Evolutionary Diversification of Early Land Plants

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The Devonian Period was a time of diversification among early land plants, and the Gaspe Penninsula of Canada and Maine hold a rich fossil record of these primitive groups. Dr. Patricia Gensel has requested continued support for her efforts to collect, prepare, and describe representatives of several of the early lineages of land plants found there. Electron microscoy and computer-aided 3-dimensional synthesis of thin sections will be used to study and reconstruct tissue structures. Variability will be studied in order to better delimit the species and genera present. The proposed work has important implications beyond the samples to be described. Her descriptive work will add significantly to our understanding of the anatomy and growth of these plants, and of their ecological circumstances and evolutionary relationships. These observations will lead to more sophisticated analyses of ancestor-descendant relationships, and they have potential to reshape the current classification of early land plants.