The evolutionary history of diversity and biogeography in amphitropical angiosperms
In contrast to the animal kingdom, plants have few amphitropical distributions. Perhaps the best example is seen in the Proteales where the sister group to the northern hemisphere Platanaceae is the diverse southern hemisphere family Proteaceae. These two groups have huge contrast whereas the Proteaceae have over 1700 species today the Platanaceae is confined to just 7 to 10 species. Yet in the geological record Platanaceae froms one of the most common and arguably diverse elements in Cretaceous vegetation of the northern hemisphere. This theme sets out to explore the contrasting history of diversity and why this might be.
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