Palaeodiversification of some Phanerozoic terrestrial flora

The evolutionary patterns shown by continental fossil plant assemblages dur ing extinction and palaeodiversification events are quite different from th e ones evidenced in the animal realm. These events are, moreover, rarely sy nchronous for plants and animals. A global approach to the Phanerozoic and, more importantly, a study of the terrestrial flora during the Jurassic and the Early Cretaceous at a different scale, illustrates these points. Plant evolution is not, however, independant of ecological factors, either bioti c or abiotic. The diversification of Angiosperms and Pinaceae during the Me sozoic is, therefore, significant. Based on their biological peculiarities, plants have speciation possibilities quite different from those of animals . Although well known by the geneticists, these possibilities are regularly underestimated by phylogeneticists, though they are evidences that evoluti on can be reticulate.