Welcome to the 31st IUBS General Assembly and Conference on ...

systematic relationships, whereas addition of ano<strong>the</strong>r
species that nests firmly within a well known group may
not. Environmental consequences of <strong>the</strong> primary seed
plant radiation will also be considered, with this
representing a miles<strong>to</strong>ne in increased independence from
wetl<strong>and</strong> habitats <strong>and</strong> included colonisation of drier <strong>and</strong>
upl<strong>and</strong> settings that affecting <strong>the</strong> carbon, wea<strong>the</strong>ring <strong>and</strong>
water cycles. However, spatial <strong>and</strong> temporal biases are
evident in <strong>the</strong> preservation of fossil suitable of
whole‐plant reconstruction; this normally requires
ana<strong>to</strong>mical preservation that is most likely <strong>to</strong> occur in
wetl<strong>and</strong> settings, whereas plants inhabiting drier settings
have significantly lower preservational potentials <strong>and</strong>
typically lack ana<strong>to</strong>mical preservation. Exceptions
including ana<strong>to</strong>mically preserved fossil plants rafted in<strong>to</strong>
marine settings or preservation within volcanic deposits
are highlighted, including recently discovered examples
from <strong>the</strong> Permian of China.
Phylogenetic <strong>to</strong>ols in reconstructing past
evolutionary patterns
Grimm GUIDO <strong>and</strong> Else Marie FRIIS
Swedish Museum of Natural His<strong>to</strong>ry, Box 50007, SE‐104‐05
S<strong>to</strong>ckholm, Sweden. Email: guido.grimm@nrm.se;
else.marie.friis@nrm.se
One <strong>and</strong> a half centuries ago, <strong>the</strong> first phylogenetic trees
were produced based on <strong>the</strong> concept that organisms
(descendants) evolve from earlier forms (ances<strong>to</strong>rs).
Since about 50 years, <strong>the</strong> newly emerging computer
sciences allowed for <strong>the</strong> first time <strong>to</strong> infer phylogenetic
relationships based on an explicit ma<strong>the</strong>matical
methodology ra<strong>the</strong>r than intuition. In particular, within
<strong>the</strong> last 10 years, <strong>the</strong> advances in computer sciences have
provided us with fast <strong>and</strong> efficient means <strong>to</strong> infer
phylogenetic relationships using maximum likelihood <strong>and</strong>
o<strong>the</strong>r probabilistic methods, which successively have
replaced <strong>the</strong> traditionally used, often biased parsimony
criterion in many fields of biological sciences. The
‘molecular revolution’ has provided us with a virtually
infinitive amount of data on <strong>to</strong>day’s organisms. The need
for fast, flexible <strong>and</strong> efficient reconstruction methods have
also led <strong>to</strong> a renaissance of distance‐based methods.
Distance‐based analyses can be based on any kind of data;
<strong>the</strong>y can be tested for correlation or phylogenetic signal
prior <strong>to</strong> tree‐inference; <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>y can be used <strong>to</strong> infer
phylogenetic networks that relax <strong>the</strong> dicho<strong>to</strong>mous
constraint inherent <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> inference of phylogenetic
trees.
However, thus far, most studies trying <strong>to</strong> infer <strong>the</strong>
phylogenetic position of fossil plant taxa make use of <strong>the</strong>
parsimony criterion despite its long‐known
shortcomings <strong>and</strong> statistical problems. Already <strong>the</strong>
comparison of phylogenetic trees based on
morphological <strong>and</strong> molecular data demonstrates that
morphological evolution is, in many cases, not a most
parsimonious process. In my talk, I will outline <strong>the</strong>
alternatives <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> traditional parsimony‐based
tree‐inference <strong>to</strong> establish phylogenetic relationships
between fossil <strong>and</strong> modern organisms. At <strong>the</strong> h<strong>and</strong> of
exemplary (plant) datasets, I will illustrate how <strong>the</strong>se
alternate <strong>to</strong>ols can be used <strong>to</strong> reconstruct <strong>the</strong>
evolutionary unfolding of groups of organisms, but also
where <strong>the</strong>ir limitations lie. In <strong>the</strong> era of phylogenomics,
<strong>the</strong> great challenge of plant sciences is not <strong>to</strong> provide
more genetic data <strong>and</strong> its analysis, which is a problem
easily overcome by technology, but <strong>to</strong> provide sufficient
morphological data <strong>to</strong> place fossils in a phylogenetic
context.
Plotting <strong>the</strong> road map beyond <strong>the</strong> access
<strong>and</strong> benefit sharing blueprint
Gong CHENG
Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China. Email:
vic<strong>to</strong>r_chenggong@126.com
Access <strong>and</strong> Benefit Sharing (ABS) of genetic resources
(GR) <strong>and</strong> associated traditional knowledge (TK) is a hot
issue in <strong>the</strong> research of biodiversity conservation <strong>and</strong>
sustainable utilization. The Secretariat of <strong>the</strong>
Convention on Biological Diversity has provided a
blueprint for ABS. Based on this blueprint <strong>and</strong> our field
research, this paper discusses <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory of providers’
ownership of genetic resources <strong>and</strong> associated
traditional knowledge, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> core elements of Prior
Informed Consent <strong>and</strong> Mutually Agreed Terms. The
authors propose a comprehensive concept of <strong>the</strong>
integrity <strong>and</strong> interactivity of Indigenous <strong>and</strong> Local
Communities as providers, <strong>the</strong> materials (GR), <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>
knowledge (TK), <strong>and</strong> suggest that <strong>the</strong> aim of ABS is
protecting this integrity <strong>and</strong> interactivity along with
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