Dissertation Research: Fossil Leguminosae from the Eocene ofSoutheastern North America

研究生Herendeen建议对美国东南部始新世豆科植物进行系统的生物地理学研究，豆荚和小叶的形态将构成研究的基础。在描述植物标本馆材料和新收藏之后，将尝试将器官与物种联系起来，然后将化石与现代分类群进行比较。美国西部始新世的代表也将进行比较。始新世是豆科植物辐射的一个重要时期，增加我们对这一时期的认识将对豆科植物和其他相关物种的进化研究产生影响。这项研究得出的新数据也将提高我们重建始新世气候和环境的能力。

Graduate student Herendeen proposes a systematic/ biogeographic study of the Eocene legumes of the southeast U.S. Pod and leaflet morphology will form the basis of the study. Description of herbarium material and new collections will be followed by attempts to associate organs to species, and then compare fossil to modern taxa. Eocene representatives from Western U.S. will also be compared. The Eocene is an important time period for the radiation of the legumes, and increasing our understanding of the group at this time would impact on evolutionary studies of this and other related groups. The new data resulting from this study will also increase our ability to reconstruct the climate and environments of the Eocene.