Genesis of phenotypic and genotypic diversity in land plants: The present as the key to the past

Abstract The evolutionary history of vascular plants is reviewed by extrapolation back through time from a wide range of data recently derived from the present flora, using as the central theme evolutionary inferences gained from phylogenies reconstructed as cladograms. Any region of the genome can be used to infer relationships, but only a combination of knowledge of morphology and the developmental genes that underpin morphology can allow evolutionary interpretation of macroevolutionary transitions; this in turn is necessary to identify bona fide evolutionary radiations and any putative causal key innovations. Such studies require clades to be delimited not by the inclusion of particular extant ‘crown’ species but rather by specific apo‐morphies, thereby giving important phylogenetic roles to extinct as well as extant species. Dating phylogenetic divergences via molecular clocks remains seriously inaccurate, and ultimately relies primarily on fossil benchmarks. First principles suggest that evolution of...