Abstract
Representatives of Williamsoniacae (Bennettitales) are usually restored as small-leafed shrubs or low-growing trees with densely interlaced stems bifurcating or trifurcating at broad angles—a growth form referred to as divaricating. A divaricate plant architecture has evolved independently in at least 18 modern plant families, of which the majority occur in New Zealand, where they constitute more than 10 % of the flora. Botanists favour two or three hypotheses on the benefits of a divaricating habit for modern plants. One hypothesis favours the evolution of this habit to protect the foliage and reproductive structures from browsing by large mammals or large flightless birds, such as the recently extinct moa or other ratites. Another argues that this habit evolved in response to a dry, windy or frosty climate, whereas a third regards divarication as having evolved to optimise foliar light harvesting. Our evaluation of these hypotheses with respect to the ecological pressures known to have been experienced by Williamsoniaceae in the mid-Mesozoic reveals that although defence against browsing tetrapods cannot be excluded as a selective pressure that promoted divarication in Williamsoniaceae, many of the anatomical and morphological features of this family appear to represent responses to local environmental conditions. In this context, representatives of Williamsoniaceae have many characters that are convergent with members of Banksiinae (Proteaceae), suggesting adaptation to open vegetation communities on nutrient-deficient soils.
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Acknowledgements
Svend Funder from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, is thanked for making the Greenland fossils available for study, and Cornelia Dilger-Endrulat from the Botanical Institute of the University of Tübingen, Germany, allowed the loan and study of the Yorkshire specimen. Wang Jun from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica (NIGPAS), Nanjing, PR China, and Zheng Xiaoting and Zhang Xiaomei from the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, Pingyi, Shandong, PR China, permitted the publication of the Anomozamites villosus specimens. Pollyanna von Knorring, Palaeobiology Department, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden, made the beautiful illustrations of the reconstructed Williamsoniaceae. CP and SM acknowledge research grants from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), Stockholm. Sidney Ash (University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA) and Michael Krings (Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany) are sincerely thanked for their comments on the manuscript.
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“This article is a contribution to the special issue “Green planet - 400 million years of terrestrial floras. Papers in honour of JHA van Konijnenburg-van Cittert”
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Pott, C., McLoughlin, S. Divaricate growth habit in Williamsoniaceae (Bennettitales): unravelling the ecology of a key Mesozoic plant group. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 94, 307–325 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-014-0157-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-014-0157-9