Ancient plants spread seeds across seas


	Ancient plants spread seeds across seas

pokkets

8-10-2007 3:38 AM

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tags:

plant, seed, continent, drift, gondwana, botany

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4e1ee1fc-0ac5-43bb-a27e-fb07cfb981a7/5FBC157B-98D4-400C-9DE1-2DF0C5D28BF7/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm" href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.abc.net.au</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><DIV align="left" class="byline">Anna Salleh</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><DIV>Many flowering plants thought to have spread throughout the southern hemisphere as the Gondwana supercontinent split really dispersed their seeds across the oceans, a new study says.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.abc.net.au/img/4766B8AE-0ECB-4395-A03D-E71E377CD4BD" alt="waratah" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm">This waratah is a true Gondwanan as it evolved while Australia was still part of the supercontinent.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.abc.net.au/img/263F38DC-B9A0-4F6F-AF02-5CAD7F16B6F1" alt="leucadendron" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm">The African leucadendron did not evolve on the Gondwanan supercontinent <I></I></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><DIV>The findings fly in the face of the long-standing assumption that related plants in Australia, South America and Africa evolved because they became separated by continental drift.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><DIV>Dr Peter Weston of the <A target="_blank" href="http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au">Botanic Gardens Trust</A> in Sydney and international colleagues used a molecular clock, which uses changes in DNA over time, to work out when different lineages of the Proteaceae family diverged.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><DIV>These include well known plants like the waratah, macadamia tree and proteas.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2000885.htm"><DIV>According to their study, published online in the <A target="_blank" href="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/jbi"><I>Journal of Biogeography</I></A>, half of the Proteaceae groups evolved after the ancient Gondwana supercontinent split up.</DIV></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/5FBC157B-98D4-400C-9DE1-2DF0C5D28BF7/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>