[Taxacom] "Tenuinucelli" clade in eudicots?

[Richard Zander]

Ken Kinman asks "Is there any definitive evidence (either molecular or
morphological) that clearly answers this question?"    

My opinion is that evidence does not answer questions, theories do.
There are theories that answer Ken's question, even based on the same
evidence. One is that a deep ancestor provided the trait for all
presentday taxa, and that deep ancestor, most parsimoniously, is the
same as one of the presentday ancestors.


* * * * * * * * * * * * 
Richard H. Zander 
Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA 
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/ and
http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
Modern Evolutionary Systematics Web site:
http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/21EvSy.htm


-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Kenneth Kinman
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 9:14 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [Taxacom] "Tenuinucelli" clade in eudicots?

Dear All,   
      Peter Stevens' APG Website lists one single character uniting
their large Order Ericales with the euasterids: ovules tenuinucellate.
However, Order Cornales (which I still place splitting off between them)
also have tenuinucellate ovules.  I think I remember a suggestion that
tenuinucellate ovules might possibly be produced by more than one
pathway, but if so, this seems to make such a character even less
reliable.          
      So is the sister group to euasterids (equal to my Subclass
Asteridae), the Order Cornales or the ericalean orders (APG's single
large Order Ericales, which equals my more traditional group of
Ericalean Orders)?  Is there any definitive evidence (either molecular
or morphological) that clearly answers this question?    
         --------Ken Kinman