Plant Evolution

This subject will introduce the general principles and modern methods of plant evolutionary biology: how to discover the phylogeny (relationships) of organisms using both morphological characters and molecular (DNA) data; how to use this information to improve the classification systems of plants; how to study aspects of evolution, coevolution and historical biogeography; and how to integrate information from living and fossil plants to discover the past and date evolutionary events. Examples of the diversity and evolution of Australian plants - both fossil and living forms - will be used throughout this subject. Topics will include: discovering plant relationships phylogenetic systematics; evolution of vascular plants, especially flowering plants; fossil history of land plants; historical biogeography and evolution of Australian flora.

• 1Describe key evolutionary processes in plants;
• 2Explain and apply principles used to infer the evolutionary history of plants from morphological and genomic data;
• 3Analyse morphological and genomic data using phylogenetic methods;
• 4Interpret the results of evolutionary studies and evaluate their implications for plant classification, historical biogeography or character evolution;
• 5Demonstrate a knowledge of the Australian flora and major Australian biomes and evaluate evidence for their evolutionary history.