ANBG Friends Plant Science Group - Technical Talk

Callitris: a chronicle of extinction, survival, dispersal and rediversification

Speaker: Emeritus Professor Mike Crisp, Research School of Biology, ANU, Canberra ACT

Summary: Callitroid conifers (Cupressaceae subfamily Callitroideae) have a rich and ancient fossil record going back 140 Myr to Pangaea but have adapted to the post-Gondwanan world by migrating across oceans and diversifying into new environments, especially the fiery, arid Australian interior. Re-assessing molecular divergence times and trait evolution in
light of a new molecular phylogeny and the exceptional fossil record of the callitroids, we show that both extinction and adaptation have played major roles in this chronicle of turnover and renewal.

Location: ANBG Theatrette