®®®® SIIA Público

Título del libro: Tree Of Life: Evolution And Classification Of Living Organisms
Título del capítulo: Conifers The Most Diverse Group of Naked Seed Plants

Autores UNAM:
DAVID SEBASTIAN GERNANDT;
Autores externos:

Idioma:

Año de publicación:
2014
Resumen:

Conifers (pinophytes or pinopsids) are woody trees or shrubs with simple leaves and with their reproductive structures arranged in cones. They have played a dominant role in terrestrial biomes on six of the seven continents, and left a fossil record in Antarctica. The conifer fossil record begins in the Carboniferous and indicates that most of this group's diversity has gone extinct. Modern conifers are classified in 6 families, and about 70 genera and 670 species. Pinus, the most diverse living genus with about 115 species, is distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, while Podocarpus, the second most diverse genus with about 100 species, is distributed throughout the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics. Most conifers are long lived and have exceptionally large population sizes, and all are wind pollinated; these characteristics may explain why retention of ancestral alleles has been observed in many recently diverged species. Phylogenetic studies based both on morphological characters and DNA sequences mostly agree on the relationship families and genera. Two unresolved questions are whether conifers should include the Gnetopsida, and the late appearance of the family Pinaceae in the fossil record. Some significant contributions of the phylogenetic approach include the demonstration that the Taxaceae are conifers with highly reduced seed-bearing organs, and the recognition of six monophyletic families. Evolutionary shifts within conifers include the parallel modification in leaf shape and structure associated with survival in dry environments with high light intensity, modifications of cones and seeds associated with wind- or animal-mediated dispersal, independent fusion of the ovuliferous scale and bract in Araucariaceae and Cupressaceae, and differences in the inheritance patterns of cytoplasmic organelles.


Entidades citadas de la UNAM: