Anthophyta
779
224480998
2008-07-09T01:07:26Z
Kingdon
668610
give alternate definition
The '''anthophytes''' were thought to be a clade comprising plants bearing flower-like structures. The group contained the [[angiosperms]] - the extant flowering plants - as well as the [[Gnetales]] and the extinct [[Bennettitales]].
Detailed morphological and molecular studies have shown that the group is not actually monophyletic.<ref name=Crepet2000/> This makes it easier to reconcile molecular clock data that suggests that the angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms around {{Ma|300}}.<ref name=Nam2003>{{cite journal | author=Nam J. et al | url=http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/9/1435 |title=Antiquity and Evolution of the MADS-Box Gene Family Controlling Flower Development in Plants | journal=Mol. Biol. Evol. | volume=20 | issue=9 | pages=1435–1447 | year=2003 | doi = 10.1093/molbev/msg152 |pmid=12777513}}</ref>
Some more recent studies have used the word anthophyte to describe a group which includes the angiosperms and a variety of fossils ([[Glossopteris|glossopterids]], ''[[Pentoxylon]]'', [[Bennettitales]], and ''[[Caytonia]]''), but not the Gnetales.<ref>{{cite journal | url = http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1133/1/3 | title = The Year in Evolutionary Biology 2008 | date = published June 2008 | journal = Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. | volume = 1133 | pages = 3–25 | doi = 10.1196/annals.1438.005 }}</ref>
{{anthophyta}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Plants]]
[[vi:Anthophyta]]