Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Exploring Zosterophyll Relationships Within A More Broadly Sampled Character Space: A Focus On Anatomy, Megan Nibbelink
Exploring Zosterophyll Relationships Within A More Broadly Sampled Character Space: A Focus On Anatomy, Megan Nibbelink
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
Important constituents of Siluro-Devonian floras, zosterophylls gave rise to the lycophytes. I explore the relationships of 18 zosterophyll species from 16 genera, maximizing sampling of anatomy. Using phylogenetic and phenetic methods, I (1) assess the influence of tree rooting, taxon sampling, and morphological vs anatomical characters on the stability of relationships; and (2) compare phylogenetic and phenetic methods in terms of relationships recovered. Phenetic analyses show sensitivity to taxon sampling and support placement of Renalia among zosterophylls, but do not provide results that are strongly congruent with those of phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that taxon and character sampling significantly …