Feild Taylor S, Arens Nan Crystal
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Dinwiddie 310, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70118-5698, USA.
New Phytol. 2005 May;166(2):383-408. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2005.01333.x.
The flowering plants--angiosperms--appeared during the Early Cretaceous period and within 10-30 Myr dominated the species composition of many floras worldwide. Emerging insights into the phylogenetics of development and discoveries of early angiosperm fossils are shedding increased light on the patterns and processes of early angiosperm evolution. However, we also need to integrate ecology, in particular how early angiosperms established a roothold in pre-existing Mesozoic plant communities. These events were critical in guiding subsequent waves of angiosperm diversification during the Aptian-Albian. Previous pictures of the early flowering plant ecology have been diverse, ranging from large tropical rainforest trees, weedy drought-adapted and colonizing shrubs, disturbance- and sun-loving rhizomatous herbs, and, more recently, aquatic herbs; however, none of these images were tethered to a robust hypothesis of angiosperm phylogeny. Here, we synthesize our current understanding of early angiosperm ecology, focusing on patterns of functional ecology, by merging recent molecular phylogenetic studies and functional studies on extant 'basal angiosperms' with the picture of early angiosperm evolution drawn by the fossil record.
开花植物——被子植物——出现在白垩纪早期，在1000万至3000万年的时间里主导了全球许多植物区系的物种构成。对发育系统发育学的新见解以及早期被子植物化石的发现，正使人们对早期被子植物进化的模式和过程有了更多的了解。然而，我们还需要将生态学纳入其中，特别是早期被子植物是如何在已有的中生代植物群落中立足的。这些事件对于引导阿普第阶-阿尔比阶期间随后的被子植物多样化浪潮至关重要。早期开花植物生态学的以往图景多种多样，从大型热带雨林树木、适应干旱的杂草状定居灌木、喜好干扰和阳光的根茎类草本植物，到最近的水生草本植物；然而，这些图景都没有基于一个强有力的被子植物系统发育假说。在这里，我们通过将近期的分子系统发育研究和对现存“基部被子植物”的功能研究与化石记录所描绘的早期被子植物进化图景相结合，综合了我们目前对早期被子植物生态学的理解，重点关注功能生态学模式。
