The tribe Geonomateae is a widely distributed group of 103 species of Neotropical palms which contains six ecologically important understory or subcanopy genera. Although it has been the focus of many studies, our understanding of the evolutionary history of this group, and in particular of the taxonomically complex genus Geonoma , is far from complete due to a lack of molecular data. Specifically, the previous Sanger sequencing-based studies used a few informative characters and partial sampling. To overcome these limitations, we used a recently developed Arecaceae-specific target capture bait set to undertake a phylogenomic analysis of the tribe Geonomateae. We sequenced 3,988 genomic regions for 85% of the species of the tribe, including 84% of the species of the largest genus, Geonoma . Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using both concatenation and coalescent methods. Overall, our phylogenetic tree is highly supported and congruent with taxonomic delimitations although several morphological taxa were revealed to be non-monophyletic. It is the first time that such a large genomic dataset is provided for an entire tribe within the Arecaceae. Our study lays the groundwork not only for detailed macro- and micro-evolutionary studies within the group, but also sets a workflow for understanding other species complexes across the tree of life.

Aim: Are the disjunct distributions of ancient lineages on continents in the Southern Hemisphere determined by vicariance following the Gondwanan tectonic breakup or recent long-distance dispersal? We traced the historical biogeography of the tree fern family Dicksoniaceae (145 Ma), which has a typical Gondwanan distribution, to test for vicariance or recent long-distance dispersal.Location: Subtropical, tropical and temperate forests of the Southern Hemisphere. Methods:We performed a molecular phylogenetic study of the family based on four chloroplast markers using Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference. Spore fossils served to calibrate the dating of the phylogeny using BEAST. The historical biogeography of the family was traced via an ancestral area reconstruction using a maximum likelihood approach.Results: We corroborated the genus Dicksonia (widespread) as sister to Lophosoria (Neotropical), with Calochlaena (Palaeotropical) as sister to both. The phylogenetic splits between the genera predate the break-up of Gondwana.

Aim:To disentangle the influence of environmental factors at different spatial grains (regional and local) on fern and lycophyte species richness and to ask how regional and plot-level richness are related to each other.Location: Global.