The first comprehensive application of cladistics to the massive body of data on both living and fossil plants, this book clarifies phylogenetic patterns within and among basal groups of land plants. In its analysis of the patterns and processes underlying the origin of land plants, the book sheds light on central questions surrounding the initial assembly of terrestrial ecosystems.

The first comprehensive application of cladistics to the massive body of data on both living and fossil plants, this book clarifies phylogenetic patterns within and among basal groups of land plants. In its analysis of the patterns and processes underlying the origin of land plants, the book sheds light on central questions surrounding the initial assembly of terrestrial ecosystems.

A modern approach to understanding the evolution and diversification of land plants, one of the most exciting areas of plant systematics. It consists of three sections - origin and diversification of primitive land plants; origin and diversification of angiosperms; speciation and mechanisms of diversification - each section corresponding to a major area in plant evolution. In each case, data from molecular, morphological, and paleontological approaches are presented, backed by recent progress and new findings, together with proposals for future research. A guide to the latest in plant systematics, heightening awareness of prospective future problems.

Diversity and Evolution of Land Plants provides a fresh and long overdue treatment of plant anatomy and morphology for the biology undergraduate of today. Setting aside the traditional plod through the plant taxa, the author adopts a problem-based functional approach, exploring plant diversity as a series of different solutions to the design problems facing plant life on land.

What do we now know about the origins of plants on land, from an evolutionary and an environmental perspective? The essays in this collection present a synthesis of our present state of knowledge, integrating current information in paleobotany with physical, chemical, and geological data.

This exciting new textbook examines the concepts of evolution as the underlying cause of the rich diversity of life on earth-and our danger of losing that rich diversity. Written as a college textbook, The Diversity and Evolution of Plants introduces the great variety of life during past ages, manifested by the fossil record, using a new natural classification system. It begins in the Proterozoic Era, when bacteria and bluegreen algae first appeared, and continues through the explosions of new marine forms in the Helikian and Hadrynian Periods, land plants in the Devonian, and flowering plants in the Cretaceous. Following an introduction, the three subkingdoms of plants are discussed. Each chapter covers one of the eleven divisions of plants and begins with an interesting vignette of a plant typical of that division. A section on each of the classes within the division follows. Each section describes where the groups of plants are found and their distinguishing features. Discussions in each section include phylogeny and classification, general morphology, and physiology, ecological significance, economic uses, and potential for research. Suggested readings and student exercises are found at the end of each chapter.