Phylogenetic network of extant and extinct seed plant inferred from a morphological matrix; colouring highlights groups of seed plants and their differentiation in three putative major lineages: The pan-angiosperms as descendants of the first common ancestor of flowering plants not shared with living conifers including Petriellaeales and Caytoniales, possible Bennettitales, Xadzigacalix and Gnetales. The pan-conifers as their counterpart including extant conifers and their extinct relatives (Doyleales) and possible precursors, Voltziales and Cordaitales, as well as Ginkgo. And pan-cycads for the group phenotypically close to cycads (Cycadales): Peltaspermales, Callistophytales, and Umkomasiales.
A Romerogram depicting contrasting hypotheses about the evolution and phylogenetic relationships between extinct and extant seed plants. Earliest precursors of seed plants include various Devonian and Mississippian (Carboniferous) progymnosperms; one group, Lyginopteridales it thought to be the stem group of all living seed plants that evolved from a shared ancestors (A) and split up into two major lineages, one including extant gymnosperms and various fossil groups associated with them ("pan-conifers"), the other ("pan-angiosperms") leading to the angiosperms (flowering plants). Alternative relationships proposed by various studies are highlighted by coloured, stippled lines such as the evolution of Glossopteridales from either the Cordaitales, a stem group of pan-conifers, or the first common ancestor of angiosperms. Angiosperms, the today dominating group of seed plants appearing in the Early Cretaceous have been linked to a broad range of groups including Gnetales (placed by molecular phylogenies in the pan-conifers), extinct Bennettitales, a group linked to either pan-conifers or pan-angiosperms, dispersed reticulate pollen found in the Triassic, and Petriellaeales, an enigmatic group of seed ferns from Lower and Middle Triassic plant fossil localities. The spindles give the (roughly estimated) diversity of each group, and the square root of extant species to the top.
Just added a bunch of #phylogenetic matrices and inferences (#networks) to my #collection of #morphological #matrices we revisited for an upcoming paper by Susanne Renner, Dmitry Sokoloff, and me on surviving ancestors, hard polytomies, and seed plant evolution.
doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...
