US-France Cooperative Research: Evolution of Early Seed Plants

该奖项将支持法国蒙彼利埃朗格多克科学技术大学的Jean Galtier博士和Brigitte Meyer-Berthaud博士以及密歇根大学安阿伯分校的Charles Beck博士和纽约州立大学宾厄姆顿分校的William Stein博士围绕种子植物的起源和早期进化进行的合作研究。这两个研究小组有机会接触到一些已知最早的种子植物的特别大而重要的收藏，这些种子植物是来自美国新奥尔巴尼页岩的下石炭世已经灭绝的种子蕨科的成员，以及法国黑山脉的利迪尼斯地层。近年来，越来越清楚的是，来自早期种子植物化石的输入对于正确推断种子植物系统发育至关重要。然而，为了取得成功，必须对菖蒲科和其他早期种子植物遗迹进行更全面的地质和地理研究。该奖项将提供差旅支持，使研究人员能够整合他们在以下几个领域的研究工作：1)对两组独立描述的非常相似的材料进行详细的系统分析；2)共同努力改进收集这些形态信息的方法，包括发展用于评估初级血管系统同源性的形态计量学分析技术；Iii)早期种子植物综合数据库的发展计划仍然适用于广泛的研究问题，iv)集中于这一群体早期成员的化石证据的种子植物起源的系统发育分析。

This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Jean Galtier and Dr. Brigitte Meyer-Berthaud, Universite des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Montpellier, France, and Dr. Charles Beck, University of Michigan, Ann Arber and Dr. William Stein, State University of New York-Binghamton, centering the origin and early evolution of seed plants. These two research groups have access to especially large and important collections of some of the earliest known seed plants, members of the extinct Lower Carboniferous seed fern family, Calamopityaceae, from the New Albany Shale of the United States, and the Lydiennes Formation of the Montagne Noire of France. In the recent years, it has become increasingly clear that input from fossil early seed plants is essential for correctly inferring seed plant phylogeny. However, to be successful more comprehensive geological and geographic perspectives on calamopityacean and other early seed plant remains must be developed. This award will provide travel support to allow the investigators to integrate their research efforts in several areas including: i) detailed systematic analysis of very similar material described independently by the two groups, ii) a concerted effort to improve the methods by which information on these forms is collected, including development of morphometric analytical techniques for assessing homology in the primary vascular system, iii) development of plans for a comprehensive database on early seed plant remains suitable for a wide range of research problems, and iv) a phylogenetic analysis of seed plant origins concentrating on the fossil evidence of this group's early members.