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FLOWERING PLANTS. "Angiosperms are seed-producing plants; they are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within the seeds, and the production of fruits that contain the seeds. Etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant." https://lnkd.in/en2Nbzs View in LinkedIn

VAST STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY. "Flowers, the reproductive organs of angiosperms, are more varied than the equivalent structures of any other group of organisms. Because of this variation, interest in plant sexual diversity has a long and venerable history in biology. However, despite this attention, it is still not obvious why flowering plants have evolved such extraordinarily diverse means to achieve only one primary function — mating success." https://lnkd.in/eSndawa View in LinkedIn

CLIMATIC EVOLUTION. "The Early Cretaceous configuration (120 Ma) appears as pivotal, with the global onset of new climatic conditions (higher rainfall and temperatures) which can favor macroevolutionary changes in the flora, such as angiosperm diversification." https://lnkd.in/eiM6qET View in LinkedIn

INDEPENDENT EVOLUTIONARY PATH. "During higher plant evolution, plants drastically increased the complexity of their bodies, with recent angiosperms representing the most evolved plants. It seems that the first roots, shoots, and leaves evolved together with the evolution of the first xylem and phloem elements, representing the vascular system. Roots and shoots, as well as vascular elements, followed an independent evolutionary path in vascular plants." https://lnkd.in/eDvT22D View in LinkedIn

COEVOLUTION. "Angiosperms and their insect pollinators have flourished with extraordinary diversity through parallel and successive "explosive" radiations over the past 140 million years. It has been suggested that the intimate relationships between flowering plants and their pollinators have fuelled each other's diversification." https://lnkd.in/ePD6mWn View in LinkedIn

FAST SPECIATION. "Flowers, the reproductive organs of flowering plants, are the most remarkable feature distinguishing them from the other seed plants. Flowers provided angiosperms with the means to have a more species-specific breeding system, and hence a way to evolve more readily into different species without the risk of crossing back with related species." https://lnkd.in/en2Nbzs View in LinkedIn

HYPOTHESES OF SUCCESS. "Most hypotheses to explain angiosperm radiation invoke biotic (instrinsic) factors, such as pollinating insects, coevolution with herbivorous insects, morphological novelties, or ecophysiological innovations as well as macroevolutionary patterns. However, recent studies have shown that extrinsic influences combined with biotic factors may drive species diversity at the multimillion-year time scale." https://lnkd.in/eiM6qET View in LinkedIn

HUGE INNOVATIONS. "Among plants, the angiosperms have undergone tremendous evolutionary innovations and radiations when compared with their sister clade, the gymnosperms." https://lnkd.in/eyHApyP View in LinkedIn

COMPLEXITY. "It is commonly assumed that a causal link exists between complexity at the genomic and organismal levels." https://lnkd.in/e8G48jD View in LinkedIn

QUESTION 2. "Does polyploidy cause consistent, predictable changes in species interactions vs. the evolution of idiosyncratic differences?" https://lnkd.in/bCmw3Fr View in LinkedIn