Dissertation Research: Phylogenetic Analysis of a Major Lineage of Early Land Plants

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9321599 Gensel Under the direction of faculty adviser Dr. Patricia Gensel at the University of North Carolina, graduate student Douglas Jensen is studying fossil materials of the extinct group of early land plants known as zosterophylls, which are thought to be related to the extant genus Lycopodium. Specimens from numerous museum collections are to be examined in an effort to amass data on comparable features of the stem, root, and spore-bearing structures of these primitive plants, in order to improve delimitation of recognizable species and genera and to infer phylogenetic relationships among the taxa. Of theoretical interest, the study will also include an investigation of how fragmentary fossil materials may be used in compiling data matrices for phylogenetic inference. New collections of fossil zosterophylls from around the world provide new sources of data for improved taxonomic discrimination in this group of primitive land plants and for rigorous hypotheses of phylogenetic relationship.