CLADISTICS OF THE BRYOPSIDALES - A PRELIMINARY-ANALYSIS

The Bryopsidales contains some of the most species rich and ecological ly dominant algae in tropical ecosystems. However, the evolutionary re lationships among the 29 genera and several hundred species of this or der remain poorly resolved. Because of a lack of known reproductive ch aracters for many taxa, evolutionary hypotheses grouped genera by simi larities in morphological characters. To apply standard cladistical an alyses to further our understanding of this group, this study presents the first comprehensive compilation of reported morphological, reprod uctive, and subcellular characteristics for genera in the Bryopsidales . Computer-assisted cladistical analyses ultimately identified phyloge netically informative and uninformative characters. Although the topol ogy of the trees generated in this study is expected to change as addi tional data are added to this matrix, many traditional groupings and r ecent groupings based on molecular data were supported.