Anthophyta Explained

The anthophytes are a paraphyletic grouping of plant taxa bearing flower-like reproductive structures. The group, once thought to be a clade, contained the angiosperms – the extant flowering plants, such as roses and grasses – as well as the Gnetales and the extinct Bennettitales.^[1]

Detailed morphological and molecular studies have shown that the group is not actually monophyletic,^[2] with proposed floral homologies of the gnetophytes and the angiosperms having evolved in parallel. This makes it easier to reconcile molecular clock data that suggests that the angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms around 320-300 mya.^[3]

Some more recent studies have used the word anthophyte to describe a hypothetical group which includes the angiosperms and a variety of extinct seed plant groups (with various suggestions including at least some of the following groups: glossopterids, corystosperms, Petriellales Pentoxylales, Bennettitales and Caytoniales), but not the Gnetales.^{[4] [5]}

Notes and References

1. Doyle . J. A. . Donoghue . M. J. . Seed plant phylogeny and the origin of angiosperms: An experimental cladistic approach . 1986 . Botanical Review . 52 . 4 . 321–431 . 10.1007/bf02861082 . 44844947 . en .
2. Coiro . Mario . Chomicki . Guillaume . Doyle . James A. . n.d. . Experimental signal dissection and method sensitivity analyses reaffirm the potential of fossils and morphology in the resolution of the relationship of angiosperms and Gnetales . Paleobiology . 44 . 3 . 490–510 . 10.1017/pab.2018.23 . 91488394 .
3. Nam J. . Antiquity and Evolution of the MADS-Box Gene Family Controlling Flower Development in Plants . Mol. Biol. Evol. . 20 . 9 . 1435–1447 . 2003 . 10.1093/molbev/msg152 . 12777513 . etal . free .
4. The Year in Evolutionary Biology 2008 . June 2008 . Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. . 1133 . 3–25 . 10.1196/annals.1438.005 . Soltis, D. E. . 18559813 . Bell . CD . Kim . S . Soltis . PS . Pamela S. Soltis . 1 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090108184520/http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1133/1/3 . 8 January 2009 . 10.1.1.463.7533 . 17688086 .
5. Shi . Gongle . Herrera . Fabiany . Herendeen . Patrick S. . Clark . Elizabeth G. . Crane . Peter R. . 2021-06-10 . Mesozoic cupules and the origin of the angiosperm second integument . Nature . en . 594 . 7862 . 223–226 . 10.1038/s41586-021-03598-w . 0028-0836.