Phylogeny & Evolution of Angiosperms
by et al Pamela S. Soltis
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Book Summary Information
Author: et al Pamela S. SoltisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-06-15
ISBN: 0878938176
Number of pages: 370
Publisher: Sinauer Associates
Book Reviews of Phylogeny & Evolution of Angiosperms
Book Review: A long-awaited book by all those interested in plant evolution
Summary: 5 Stars
The revolution brought about by Crick and Watson's discovery of the structure of DNA is still expanding in all fields of biology, and plant systematics and evolution are no exception to this. Researchers in the 1980's have started sequencing pieces of DNA from plants with the aim of comparing their sequences, hoping to get information about their past evolution. The results have largely exceeded the expectations, and hundreds of papers on plant molecular phylogeny have since been published, including the remarkable APG I & II papers, that present a new classification for plants, entirely based on what is known of their evolutionary history.
The present book is a most useful synthesis of all these pieces of work, and presents a well-documented image of what we know about plant evolution and diversity at the moment. The book starts with the earliest cases of divergence found in the flowering plants and proceeds towards the more recent diversification events, with detailed studies of families and some genera, and special chapters about the evolution of flowers, genome size and some cases of parallel evolution (parasitic and carnivorous plants, C4 photosynthesis). Many of the diagrams presented have been seen nowhere else, and provide striking pictures of how plant evolution can be inferred with the knowledge available nowadays (even though some of the details may still be questionable).
It is regrettable that so little is said about biogeography, but that could have made the subject of a new book altogether. Some of the conclusions presented are somewhat cursory. For example, the tendrils/hooks of Ancistrocladaceae, Dioncophyllaceae and Nepenthaceae are unlikely to be homologous, being twigs, leaf tips and petioles, respectively, although the book presents them as a possibly shared, "ancestral" trait (p. 263). Likewise, the leaf-borne flowers of Helwingia and Phyllonoma (p. 224) are quite different (the pedicel is distinctly fused with the leaf petiole and midrib in the former, whereas the latter shows no clue as to how this condition has evolved). This could have been explained in a few words. No doubt however that such imperfections will be improved in further versions of the book. Before this happens, I am much looking forward to new versions of the APG system, and all the projects that the present book will foster in the years to come.
Summary of Phylogeny & Evolution of Angiosperms
Our understanding of angiosperm relationships has changed dramatically during the past ten years. The big picture of angiosperm phylogeny emerged suddenly as a direct result of collaborative molecular analyses, and longstanding views of deep-level relationships required revision. Many major clades of angiosperms did not correspond to the classes, subclasses, and orders of modern classifications. Furthermore, a wealth of recent data coupled with current understanding of phylogeny permits reevaluation of many deep-rooted evolutionary hypotheses. Soltis et al. provide a comprehensive summary of current concepts of angiosperm phylogeny and illustrate the profound impact that this phylogenetic framework has had on concepts of character evolution. In so doing, they acknowledge inadequacies in both current understanding of phylogeny and knowledge of morphological characters, as well as the need for additional study.Botany Books
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