Leslie, A.B. 2011. Predation and protection in the macroevolutionary history of conifer cones. Proc R. Soc. B. 278: 3003-3008.
The paper discussed morphological changes in conifer cones through time. In general, seed cones became "fatter" through the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Leslie (2011) suggests that increased selective pressure from herbivory may have resulted in such morphological changes.
In general we thought the paper was interesting and easy to read. However, we felt that several analyses would have been useful in terms of creating a tighter link between herbivory (dinosaur, bird, mammal) and conifer morphology. These may have included correlating diversity with conifer dimensions.
We hope to see more on this subject and enjoyed discussing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment