3 / 19
Page 43
conferenceseries
.com
Volume 8
Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
ISSN: 2157-7625
Ecology 2018
March 19-20, 2018
March 19-20, 2018 | Berlin, Germany
World Conference on Ecology
Origin of angiosperms/flowers and its botanical implications
Xin Wang
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, China
A
ngiosperms are the single most important plant group simply because they are of peerless importance in the ecosystem
and the well-being of human beings is out of the question without angiosperms. However, incredibly, as for the origin,
history and systematics of such an important group, our understanding is very limited or simply misled. Formerly, Magnoliaceae
was mistaken as the most ancestral in angiosperms and recently it was replaced by Amborellaceae, although the provenance of
the latter is still mysterious. Analyzing the logic underlying these repeated mistakes, it is easy to find that many botanists were
misled by a groundless misnomer in botany, megasporophyll. This is more or less related to the famous word from Goethe, “Alles
ist Blatt”, and the female parts of reproductive were frequently and irrationally called megasporophylls. This background made
angiosperms unacceptably well-isolated from other seed plants and the homology of gynoecium in angiosperms persistently
perplexing. However, recent advances in botany and palaeobotany indicate that the foliar nature formerly assumed for carpels in
angiosperms is gratuitous, the ovules are borne on branches, and the ovule-enclosing part in gynoecium is mainly foliar in nature.
Namely, the so-called carpel in angiosperms is a composite organ derived from formerly a leaf and a branch. Although at odds
with the classical conception, this interpretation makes the carpels in angiosperms homologous and comparable with bracts and
their axillary ovule-bearing branches in gymnosperms. Thus there is no gap between angiosperms and gymnosperms any more.
If the ovules in gymnosperms are taken as specialized megasporangia retained on the mother plants and thus homologous with
and comparable to sporangia in ferns and early land plants, then all land plants can be coherently united together into a single tree
and the long-after natural systematics of angiosperms and land plants is within the reach of botanists.
Recent Publications
1. Wang X (2018) The dawn angiosperms. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-58325-9
2. Miao Y, Liu Z J, Wang M and Wang X (2017) Fossil and living cycads say no more
megasporophylls. Journal of Morphology and Anatomy 1:107.
3. Han G, Liu Z J, Liu X, Mao L, Jacques F M B and Wang X (2016) A whole plant
herbaceous angiosperm from the middle Jurassic of China. Acta Geologica Sinica
90(1):19-29.
4. Wang X (2010) Schmeissneria: An angiosperm from the early Jurassic. Journal of
Systematics and Evolution 48(5):326-335.
5. Wang X, Liu Z J, Liu W, Zhang X, Guo X, Hu G, Zhang S, Wang Y and Liao W
(2015) Breaking the stasis of current plant systematics. Science & Technology
Review 33:97-105.
Biography
Xin Wang is one of the few leading Palaeobotanists focusing his research interest on the origin and early evolution of angiosperms/flowers. His unifying theory for
the first time united all land plants together through the shared features in the reproductive organs. His research refuted the long and widely accepted but groundless
misinterpretation about the origin and homology of flowers. Through his effort the formerly hard to negotiate gap between angiosperms and gymnosperms is
filled, and the evolution of all reproductive organs of land plants can be interpreted as the result of varying fate of sporangium. This achievement, especially in a
background where molecular systematics dominates, is of especial importance because morphological anatomical features are largely ignored or down-played.
xinwang@nigpas.ac.cnXin Wang, J Ecosyst Ecography 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7625-C1-032
Conventional scheme of the automated
system for control of river pollution level.