Dissertation Research: Patterns of Morphological Evolution in Late Paleozoic Seeds

小行星9801607 晚泥盆世的种子起源是一个关键的创新，促进了在陆地植物早期进化过程中对广泛的陆地环境和多样的生态策略的利用。 在整个晚古生代，种子植物辐射的环境与生态动力学和组织是从根本上不同于最近的，最显着的是在没有四足动物的草食动物，有限的直接植物-昆虫的相互作用，以及强大的系统发育划分不同的植物群之间的生态策略。 晚古生代的化石种子记录提供了一个机会，研究如何增加的复杂性和现代化的生态相互作用，反映在结构适应，以保护和分散繁殖。 本文拟对晚泥盆世至二叠纪的种子植物化石进行分类多样性和形态差异分析。 种子大小的进化意义将通过测试体积的趋势来检查。 基于种子形态的形态空间将被用来测试种子植物亚支之间形态和生态重叠的假设模式。 这项研究将是第一次定量处理的宏观演化模式在早期历史的一个主要群体的陆地植物，并将有助于了解晚古生代陆地生态系统的独特结构。

9801607 Foote The origin of the seed in the Late Devonian was a key innovation that facilitated the exploitation of a wide range of terrestrial environments and diverse ecological strategies during the early evolution of plants on land. Throughout the late Paleozoic, seed plants radiated in environments with ecological dynamics and organization that were fundamentally different from those of the Recent, most notably in the absence of tetrapod herbivory, limited direct plant-insect interactions, and strong phylogenetic partitioning of ecological strategies among different plant groups. The fossil seed record of the late Paleozoic provides an opportunity to study how increasing complexity and modernization of ecological interactions was reflected in structural adaptations to protect and disperse propagules. The research proposed here includes analyses of taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity in subclades of late Devonian to Permian fossil seed plants. The evolutionary significance of seed size will be examined by testing for trends in volume. A morphospace based on seed morphology will be used to test hypothesized patterns of morphological and ecological overlap among seed plant subclades. This research will be the first quantitative treatment of macroevolutionary patterns during the early history of a major group of land plants and will contribute to understanding of the unique structure of late Paleozoic terrestrial ecosystems.