- Anthophyta
The anthophytes were thought to be a clade comprising plants bearing flower-like structures. The group contained the
angiosperms - the extant flowering plants - as well as theGnetales and the extinctBennettitales .Detailed morphological and molecular studies have shown that the group is not actually monophyletic. This makes it easier to reconcile molecular clock data that suggests that the angiosperms diverged from the gymnosperms around Ma|300.cite journal | author=Nam J. et al | url=http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/9/1435 |title=Antiquity and Evolution of the MADS-Box Gene Family Controlling Flower Development in Plants | journal=Mol. Biol. Evol. | volume=20 | issue=9 | pages=1435–1447 | year=2003 | doi = 10.1093/molbev/msg152 |pmid=12777513]
Some more recent studies have used the word anthophyte to describe a group which includes the angiosperms and a variety of fossils (glossopterids, "
Pentoxylon ",Bennettitales , and "Caytonia "), but not the Gnetales. [cite journal | url = http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1133/1/3 | title = The Year in Evolutionary Biology 2008 | date = published June 2008 | journal = Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. | volume = 1133 | pages = 3–25 | doi = 10.1196/annals.1438.005 | author = Soltis, D. E. | pmid = 18559813 ]References
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