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

小行星9321599 在北卡罗来纳州大学的教师顾问帕特里夏·根塞尔博士的指导下，研究生道格拉斯詹森正在研究早期陆地植物中已灭绝的动物叶植物的化石材料，这种植物被认为与现存的石松属有关。 来自众多博物馆收藏的标本将被检查，努力收集这些原始植物的茎，根和孢子结构的可比特征的数据，以提高可识别的种和属的界限，并推断类群之间的系统发育关系。 理论上的兴趣，这项研究还将包括如何零碎的化石材料可能被用于汇编数据矩阵的系统发育推断的调查。 来自世界各地的新的化石zosterophylls收集提供了新的数据来源，改善这组原始的陆地植物的分类歧视和严格的系统发育关系的假设。

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.