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

9321599 Gensel在北卡罗来纳大学教职顾问Patricia Gensel博士的指导下，研究生Douglas Jensen正在研究已灭绝的早期陆地植物群的化石材料，这些植物被称为缩叶植物，被认为与现存的石松属有亲缘关系。为了收集这些原始植物茎、根和含孢子结构的可比特征的数据，对来自许多博物馆收藏品的标本进行研究，以便更好地界定可识别的物种和属，并推断分类群之间的系统发育关系。具有理论意义的是，这项研究还将包括调查如何使用零碎的化石材料来汇编用于系统发育推断的数据矩阵。来自世界各地的新的带叶植物化石收集为改进这类原始陆地植物的分类区分和严格的系统发育关系假说提供了新的数据来源。

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.