Reconstructing<i>Emporia lockardii</i>(Voltziales: Emporiaceae) and Initial Thoughts on Paleozoic Conifer Ecology

Hernandez‐Castillo, Genaro R.; Stockey, Ruth A.; Rothwell, Gar W.; Mapes, Gene

doi:10.1086/605115

Cited by 34 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Emporiaceae, Voltziales, dated at 305 Ma, Pennsylvanian, Upper Carboniferous) were winged and held in compact cones with a woody axis bearing bark and megasporophylls with secondary xylem (Hernandez‐Castillo et al . ,b). These authors concluded that ‘most ancient conifers already possessed a similar reproductive biology…to that of extant conifers’, including seed dormancy (a necessary feature of serotinous species aligned with cone woodiness).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 350‐million‐year legacy of fire adaptation among conifers

Belcher

Lamont

et al. 2015

Journal of Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Current phylogenetic evidence shows that fire began shaping the evolution of land plants 125 Ma, although the fossil charcoal record indicates that fire has a much longer history (>350 Ma). Serotiny (on‐plant seed storage) is generally accepted as an adaptation to fire among woody plants. We developed a conceptual model of the requirements for the evolution of serotiny, and propose that serotiny is only expressed in the presence of a woody rachis as supporting structure, compact scales covering seeds as protective structure, seed wing as dispersal structure, and crown fire as the agent of selection and mechanism for seed release. This model is strongly supported by empirical data for modern ecosystems. We reconstructed the evolutionary history of intrinsic structural states required for the expression of serotiny in conifers, and show that these were diagnostic for early (‘transitional’) conifers from 332 Ma (late‐Carboniferous). We assessed the likely flammable characteristics of early conifers and found that scale‐leaved conifers burn rapidly and with high intensity, supporting the idea that crown fire regimes may have dominated early conifer ecosystems. Synthesis. Coupled with strong evidence for frequent fire throughout the Permian‐Carboniferous and fossil evidence for other fire‐related traits, we conclude that many early conifers were serotinous in response to intense crown fires, indicating that fire may have had a major impact on the evolution of plant traits as far back as 350 Ma.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 350‐million‐year legacy of fire adaptation among conifers

Belcher

Lamont

et al. 2015

Journal of Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…And, certainly, by the Permian, these plants had attained relatively large stature (Looy 2013). Throughout their Paleozoic history, from the earliest occurrences (Hernandez-Castillo et al 2009) to their abundant occurrences in the Permian (Florin 1950;Kerp et al 1990;Kerp 1996;Ziegler et al 2002;DiMichele et al 2007;Looy and Duijnstee 2013), conifers were probably the most consistently reliable indicators of environments with seasonal moisture stress; Ziegler et al (2002) mapped their paleogeographic distribution and found them to be restricted to seasonally dry environments of the Euramerican tropics and subtropics. The consistent association with indicators of periodic drought led White (1936) to call them "children of adversity.…”

Section: Dryland Floral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Premise of research. The Late Paleozoic Ice Age was the last extensive pre-Pleistocene ice age. It includes many climate changes of different intensities, permitting examination of many and varied biotic responses. The tropical Pennsylvanian Subperiod, usually visualized as one vast wetland coal forest, in fact also was dominated, periodically, by seasonally dry vegetation that, in turn, covered most of the central and western Pangean supercontinent. Equatorial wetland and dryland biomes oscillated during single glacial-interglacial cycles. This recognition changes understanding of the Coal Age tropics; examination of their spatiotemporal patterns indicates that these vegetation types responded differently to global environmental disturbances and long-term trends and points to potentially different underlying controls on evolutionary histories of their component lineages.Methodology. This study is based on the published literature and on examination of geological exposures and fossil floras, mainly from North America but also from other parts of the world.Pivotal results. Wetlands and seasonally dry habitats were equally part of the Coal Age Pangean tropics. They dominated these landscapes at different times, under different climatic regimes. Wetland vegetation was likely forced into refugia during seasonally dry (subhumid to semiarid) parts of glacial-interglacial cycles; it reemerged/reassembled during wet (humid to perhumid) periods. Seasonally dry vegetation resided permanently in areas of western and central Pangea and in microhabitats within the Central Pangean Mountains. Both floras had lower biodiversity than modern floras in similar habitats. The wetland flora species pool was more phylogenetically disparate than any modern vegetation. In contrast, seasonally dry floras were dominated by seed plants. These biomes responded differently to acute environmental changes and chronic long-term aridification.Conclusions. From ecological or evolutionary perspectives, the present-day world is but one possibility. Lower-diversity worlds such as the late Paleozoic, with a rich spectrum of environmental variations, offer insights into relationships between organisms and environments that expand understanding of these phenomena and enlarge our sense of what is possible or probable as we look to the future.

show abstract

“…The Artisia specimen is typical of cordaitalean gymnosperms, a group best known from the Pennsylvanian but extending into the early Permian (Mamay, 1967). Septate piths, however, also have been identified in walchian conifers and dicranophylls (Renault and Zeiller, 1888;Hernandez-Castillo et al, 2009;Falcon-Lang et al, 2011), and may have been typical of primitive coniferophytes generally.…”

Section: Preservation and Identity Of The Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This type of pith is most commonly attributed to cordaitaleans (Chamberlain, 1966;Tidwell, 1975), an order best known from the Carboniferous, but ranging into the early Permian (Mamay, 1967). However, septate piths also have been described from walchian conifers (Hernandez-Castillo et al, 2009;Falcon-Lang et al, 2011) and Dicranophyllum (Renault and Zeiller, 1888).…”

Section: Preservation and Identity Of The Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%