Mid-Devonian Archaeopteris Roots Signal Revolutionary Change in Earliest Fossil Forests

Stein, William E.; Berry, Christopher Mark; Morris, Jenny; Hernick, Linda VanAller; Mannolini, Frank; Straeten, Charles Ver; Landing, Ed; Marshall, J.; Wellman, Charles H.; Beerling, David J.; Leake, Jonathan R.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.067

Cited by 74 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This increase in time-to-act-while a necessary condition for deliberation 2 -may not have been a sufficient condition for the evolution of planning in dynamic scenarios. Importantly, within the greatly enhanced range of Devonian aerial vision was rich structure provided by vegetation 3 and terrestrial topography, resulting in environments with greater complexity compared to aquatic habitats 4 ( Supplementary Fig. 2a-c).…”

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confidence: 99%

Spatial planning with long visual range benefits escape from visual predators in complex naturalistic environments

Mugan

MacIver

2020

Nat Commun

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It is uncontroversial that land animals have more elaborated cognitive abilities than their aquatic counterparts such as fish. Yet there is no apparent a-priori reason for this. A key cognitive faculty is planning. We show that in visually guided predator-prey interactions, planning provides a significant advantage, but only on land. During animal evolution, the water-to-land transition resulted in a massive increase in visual range. Simulations of behavior identify a specific type of terrestrial habitat, clustered open and closed areas (savanna-like), where the advantage of planning peaks. Our computational experiments demonstrate how this patchy terrestrial structure, in combination with enhanced visual range, can reveal and hide agents as a function of their movement and create a selective benefit for imagining, evaluating, and selecting among possible future scenarios-in short, for planning. The vertebrate invasion of land may have been an important step in their cognitive evolution.

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confidence: 99%

Spatial planning with long visual range benefits escape from visual predators in complex naturalistic environments

Mugan

MacIver

2020

Nat Commun

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“…The closest living relative of these plants is the diminutive Isoetes , which is a member of the cormose group of isoetaleans that have a much reduced, compact base rather than a more extensive stigmarian system (Bierhorst, 1971; Larsén & Rydin, 2016). Present fossil evidence suggests that isoetaleans with contrasting stigmarian and cormose rooting systems co‐occurred in the Devonian (e.g., Chitaley & Pigg, 1996; Wang et al, 2003; Cressler & Pfefferkorn, 2005; Prestianni & Gess, 2014; Hetherington et al, 2016, 2019; Xu & Wang, 2016; Stein et al, 2020). Given the evidence for pervasive heterochrony as a force shaping the gross morphology of these plants (Bateman & DiMichele, 1991; Pigg, 1992; Bateman, 1994), we increasingly suspect that forms with reduced rhizomorphic rooting systems may represent multiple origins from stigmarian ancestors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Late Paleozoic rhizomorphic lycopsid trees possessing stigmarian rooting systems arguably include the most morphologically complex members of the isoetalean clade (Bateman, 1994). The lineage appears to have originated in the Devonian (Wang et al, 2002(Wang et al, , 2003Stein et al, 2020) and reached its zenith in the Carboniferous, when it dominated many wetland tropical ecosystems, particularly the extensive equatorial swamps of the Early and Middle Pennsylvanian (Phillips & DiMichele, 1992;Thomas, 2007). Sadly, the arboreous, stigmarian forms are extinct today.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Better together: Joint consideration of anatomy and morphology illuminates the architecture and life history of the Carboniferous arborescent lycopsid Paralycopodites

DiMichele¹,

Bateman

2020

J of Sytematics Evolution

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Paralycopodites Morey & Morey, a Carboniferous-age arboreous lycopsid that grew in the tropical wetlands of Pangea, is the phylogenetically basalmost member of the Carboniferous stigmarian lycopsids to be conceptually reconstructed. We update its description through reciprocal illumination between anatomy (coal-balls) and gross morphology (adpressions). Revised assessment of its architecture and development shows that the determinate, columnar main trunk eventually underwent several isotomous divisions to form a crown. Two opposite rows of closely-spaced, compact lateral branches were initiated anisotomously throughout the trunk and crown, each branch further undergoing multiple anisotomous divisions to form an apparently planar scaffold for numerous bisporangiate cones. We infer that branches were initially emitted near-vertically, but rapidly moved to a more horizontal position; they were abscised after the cones had matured but before the continuous phellogen had produced a centripetal periderm. Leaves were not abscised, though anatomy and morphology both suggest a photosynthetic economy that was localized within the plant body. Character content and clarity of interpretation make Paralycopodites the preferred name for the reconstructed plant rather than Anabathra, Ulodendron, or Bergeria. Phylogenetic analysis of rhizomorphic lycopsids based on a reduced spectrum of features observable in adpression returns the same topology as that based on a full matrix combining both anatomical and externally visible traits, permitting adpression fossils to be assigned to anatomically-circumscribed genera rather than perpetuating an unnecessary parallel taxonomy.

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“…The evolution of land plants, including mosses, liverworts and the various groups of vascular plants, produced a vast diversity of body plans, structures and ecological strategies for occupying numerous niches. An important step was the evolution of the tree growth form which appeared quite early during land plant evolution, with fossil forests dating back to the Middle Devonian (Stein et al 2012;Stein et al 2020). By the end of the Devonian, all principal plant body plans were established (Bateman et al 1998) including the "modern" tree stem, as represented by Archaeopteris, consisting of a massive column of secondary wood (Meyer-Berthaud et al 1999;Meyer-Berthaud et al 2010;Decombeix et al 2011).…”

Section: The Tree-a Multifunctional Affairmentioning

confidence: 99%

From tree to architecture: how functional morphology of arborescence connects plant biology, evolution and physics

Roth‐Nebelsick

Miranda

Ebner

et al. 2021

Palaeobio Palaeoenv

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Trees are the fundamental element of forest ecosystems, made possible by their mechanical qualities and their highly sophisticated conductive tissues. The evolution of trees, and thereby the evolution of forests, were ecologically transformative and affected climate and biogeochemical cycles fundamentally. Trees also offer a substantial amount of ecological niches for other organisms, such as epiphytes, creating a vast amount of habitats. During land plant evolution, a variety of different tree constructions evolved and their constructional principles are a subject of ongoing research. Understanding the “natural construction” of trees benefits strongly from methods and approaches from physics and engineering. Plant water transport is a good example for the ongoing demand for interdisciplinary efforts to unravel form-function relationships on vastly differing scales. Identification of the unique mechanism of water long-distance transport requires a solid basis of interfacial physics and thermodynamics. Studying tree functions by using theoretical approaches is, however, not a one-sided affair: The complex interrelationships between traits, functionality, trade-offs and phylogeny inspire engineers, physicists and architects until today.

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Mid-Devonian Archaeopteris Roots Signal Revolutionary Change in Earliest Fossil Forests

Abstract: This is a repository copy of Mid-Devonian Archaeopteris roots signal revolutionary change in earliest fossil forests.

Cited by 74 publications

References 39 publications

Spatial planning with long visual range benefits escape from visual predators in complex naturalistic environments

Spatial planning with long visual range benefits escape from visual predators in complex naturalistic environments

Better together: Joint consideration of anatomy and morphology illuminates the architecture and life history of the Carboniferous arborescent lycopsid Paralycopodites

From tree to architecture: how functional morphology of arborescence connects plant biology, evolution and physics

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