Systematics and Paleobotany of the Legume Subfamily Caesalpinioideae

豆科大植物科豆科（豆科）具有重要的生态意义（固氮物种是常见的）和重要的经济意义（包括大豆、三叶草和热带乔木作物）。虽然分类学多样性的一般方面是众所周知的，但关于导致目前已知的18,000个左右物种的科内进化变化的许多问题仍未得到解答。即使是这个家族最近的亲戚仍然存在争议，最近的分子（DNA）发现表明，Polygalaceae是一个小的草本家族，其花朵表面类似于豆科的“凤蝶”花。豆科植物最原始的类群是灌木和乔木，属于豆科亚科，大多数属属于豆科亚科和豆科亚科。菲尔德博物馆的帕特里克·赫伦丁博士正在研究这些群体，他强调对化石材料的收集和分析，并将这些数据与从他自己和合作者安妮·布鲁诺（DNA分析）、伊恩·弗格森（花粉形态）和雪莉·塔克（花形态）研究的亚科现存成员收集的信息相结合。在非洲这个物种多样性丰富的地区进行广泛的实地考察，将为所有这些研究人员和其他对豆科植物系统学和进化感兴趣的人提供新的标本和材料。化石研究将集中于从亚洲、欧洲和北美始新世和中新世沉积物中收集的花、花粉、果实和叶子。已知或怀疑有几个已灭绝的属，植物通过在现代现存物种中没有发现的特征组合来区分。对这些化石材料的特征分析将有助于确定各种植物和营养特征的进化变化方向，反过来，这将有助于分类学家划分亚部落和属群，并对早期豆科植物的系统发育谱系进行假设。

9527673 Herendeen The large plant family Leguminosae (Fabaceae) is ecologically significant (nitrogen fixing species are common) and economically important (it includes soybeans, clovers, and tropical tree crops). While general aspects of taxonomic diversity are well known, many questions remain unanswered about evolutionary changes within the family that have led to the 18,000 or so species currently recognized. Even the closest relatives of the family remain controversial, with recent molecular (DNA) findings suggesting the small, herbaceous family Polygalaceae, with flowers superficially similar to "papilionoid" blossoms of Leguminosae. The most primitive groups of legumes are shrubs and trees classified in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae, with most genera placed in the tribes Amherstieae and Detarieae. Dr. Patrick Herendeen of Field Museum is working on these groups, emphasizing collection and analysis of fossil materials and integration of these data with information collected from living members of the subfamily studied by himself and by collaborators Anne Bruneau (DNA analyses), Ian Ferguson (pollen morphology), and Shirley Tucker (floral morphology). Extensive field work in Africa, a region of great species diversity for the two tribes, will provide new specimens and materials for all these researchers and others interested in legume systematics and evolution. Fossil studies will concentrate on flowers, pollen, fruits, and leaves collected from Eocene and Miocene deposits in Asia, Europe, and North America. Several extinct genera are known or suspected, with plants distinguished by combinations of features not found in modern, living species. Character analysis of this fossil material will help in determining the direction of evolutionary change in various floral and vegetative features, and in turn this will aid taxonomists in delimiting subtribal and generic groupings and in hypothesizing phylogenetic lineages within early legumes.