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Non-adaptive change in early land plant evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

David C. Wight
David C. Wight*
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701
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Abstract

Primary vascular architecture of members of the Paleozoic Aneurophytales (Progymnosper-mopsida) is described. This architecture is somewhat more complex but fundamentally similar (homologous) to that of members of the Trimerophytina, putative ancestors of aneurophytes. It is suggested that the presence of complex stelar morphology in aneurophytes was epiphenomenal, a passive result of changes in growth and development in a trimerophyte-like ancestor. Specifically, I suggest that the evolutionary transformation in primary vascular architecture from haplostele to ribbed protostele was a direct consequence of changes that affected the vertical spacing and degree of organization of lateral appendages in early vascular plants. This view is in sharp contrast to adaptationist explanations of change in stelar morphology expressed by other authors and provides an example of non-adaptive change in evolution.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , Spring 1987 , pp. 208 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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