TY - BOOK T1 - World checklist of palms Y1 - 2005 A1 - Govaerts, R. A1 - Dransfield, J. PB - Royal Botanic Gardens CY - Kew ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The fossil history of palms (Arecaceae) in Africa and new records from the Late Oligocene (28-27 Mya) of north-western Ethiopia JF - Botanical Journal of the Linnean SocietyBotanical Journal of the Linnean Society Y1 - 2005 A1 - Pan, A. D. A1 - Jacobs, B. F. A1 - Dransfield, J. A1 - Baker, W. J. SP - 69 EP - 81 AB - The African palm fossil record is limited but the data provide an outline of palm evolution from the Late Cretaceous through the Neogene. Pollen attributed to palms is reported from the Aptian (125-112 Mya), but the earliest unequivocal record in Africa is Campanian (83.5-70.6 Mya). Palms diversified 83.5-65.5 Mya and became widespread, although most records are from the west and north African coasts. Many taxa were shared between Africa and northern South America at that time, but a few were pantropical. Extirpations occurred throughout the Palaeogene, including a notable species turnover and decline at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (33.9 Mya), a change that resulted in the elimination of nypoid palms from Africa. The Neogene plant macrofossil record is better sampled than the Palaeogene, although few palms are documented. Thus, the low diversity of African palms today is more likely the result of Palaeogene, rather than Neogene extinctions. Newly discovered palm fossils of leaves, petioles and flowers from the Late Oligocene (27-28 Mya) of north-western Ethiopia document the abundance and dominance of palms in some communities at that time. The fossils represent the earliest records of the extant genera Hyphaene (Coryphoideae) and Eremospatha (Calamoideae). (c) 2006 The Linnean Society of London. CY - Kew, U.K. VL - 151 JO - Bot J Linn Soc ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Determinants of palm species distributions across Africa: the relative roles of climate, non-climatic environmental factors, and spatial constraints JF - EcographyEcography Y1 - 2010 A1 - Blach-Overgaard, A. A1 - Svenning, J. C. A1 - Dransfield, J. A1 - Greve, M. A1 - Balslev, H. SP - 380 EP - 391 AB - Most of the Earth's biodiversity resides in the tropics. However, a comprehensive understanding of which factors control range limits of tropical species is still lacking. Climate is often thought to be the predominant range-determining mechanism at large spatial scales. Alternatively, species’ ranges may be controlled by soil or other environmental factors, or by non-environmental factors such as biotic interactions, dispersal barriers, intrinsic population dynamics, or time-limited expansion from place of origin or past refugia. How species ranges are controlled is of key importance for predicting their responses to future global change. Here, we use a novel implementation of species distribution modelling (SDM) to assess the degree to which African continental-scale species distributions in a keystone tropical group, the palms (Arecaceae), are controlled by climate, non-climatic environmental factors, or non-environmental spatial constraints. A comprehensive data set on African palm species occurrences was assembled and analysed using the SDM algorithm Maxent in combination with climatic and non-climatic environmental predictors (habitat, human impact), as well as spatial eigenvector mapping (spatial filters). The best performing models always included spatial filters, suggesting that palm species distributions are always to some extent limited by non-environmental constraints. Models which included climate provided significantly better predictions than models that included only non-climatic environmental predictors, the latter having no discernible effect beyond the climatic control. Hence, at the continental scale, climate constitutes the only strong environmental control of palm species distributions in Africa. With regard to the most important climatic predictors of African palm distributions, water-related factors were most important for 25 of the 29 species analysed. The strong response of palm distributions to climate in combination with the importance of non-environmental spatial constraints suggests that African palms will be sensitive to future climate changes, but that their ability to track suitable climatic conditions will be spatially constrained. PB - Blackwell Publishing Ltd VL - 33 SN - 1600-0587 JO - Ecography ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Growth forms of rain forest palms T2 - Tropical trees as living systems Y1 - 1978 A1 - Dransfield, J. ED - Tomlinson, P. B. ED - Zimmermann, M. H. SP - 232 EP - 246 JF - Tropical trees as living systems PB - Cambridge University Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Palmae T2 - Flora of tropical East Africa Y1 - 1986 A1 - Dransfield, J. ED - Polhill, R. M. JF - Flora of tropical East Africa PB - A.A. Balkema CY - Rotterdam ER - TY - CHAP T1 - The palms of Africa and their relationships T2 - Modern systematic studies in African botany Y1 - 1988 A1 - Dransfield, J. ED - Goldblatt, P. ED - Lowry, P. P. SP - 95 EP - 103 JF - Modern systematic studies in African botany PB - Missouri Botanical Garden Press ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The palms of Madagascar Y1 - 1995 A1 - Dransfield, J. A1 - Beentje, H. J. PB - Royal Botanic Gardens and International Palm Society CY - Kew ER - TY - JOUR T1 - A new phylogenetic classification of the palm family, Arecaceae JF - Kew BulletinKew Bulletin Y1 - 2005 A1 - Dransfield, J. A1 - Uhl, N.W. A1 - Conny B. Asmussen A1 - Baker, J.W A1 - Harley, M.M A1 - Lewis, C.E. SP - 559 EP - 569 VL - 60 JO - Kew Bull ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Genera Palmarum: The evolution and classification of palms Y1 - 2008 A1 - Dransfield, J. A1 - Uhl, N.W. A1 - Asmussen, C. B. A1 - Baker, W.J. A1 - Harley, M. M. A1 - Lewis, C. E. PB - Kew Publishing CY - Kew ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Towards a biogeographic explanation of the calamoid palms T2 - Monocots: Systematics and Evolution Y1 - 2000 A1 - Baker, W. J. A1 - Dransfield, J. ED - Wilson, K. L. ED - Morrison, D. A. SP - 545 EP - 553 JF - Monocots: Systematics and Evolution PB - CSIRO CY - Melbourne ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Phylogeny, character evolution, and a new classification of the calamoid palms JF - Systematic BotanySystematic Botany Y1 - 2000 A1 - Baker, W. J. A1 - Dransfield, J. A1 - Hedderson, T. A. SP - 297 EP - 322 AB - The remarkable morphological diversity of the palm subfamily Calamoideae provides a paradigm for evolutionary studies of palm structure and function. Phylogenetic relationships among the 22 calamoid genera are investigated here in simultaneous analyses of morphological data and DNA sequences from nuclear ITS regions and the chloroplast rps16 intron. The resultant hypotheses of relationship are used to explore morphological character evolution through an examination of character state optimisations. The evolution of habit and its associated characters is found to be highly homoplasious; for example, multiple origins of both the acaulescent and climbing growth forms have been identified. Similarly, life history and reproductive characters show complex patterns of evolution with few primary homology assessments proving to be effective judgements of synapomorphy. Many of these homoplasious characters were emphasized in the previous classification of the Calamoideae and consequently some non-monophyletic groups were recognized formally. We present a new classification in which a number of unexpected, group-defining characters, such as the number of pollen apertures, have been identified. The classification comprises three tribes and nine subtribes, including one newly described tribe Eugeissoneae. However, the morphology of many well supported clades remains poorly understood, creating further challenges for future studies in calamoid phylogeny. VL - 25 SN - 0363-6445 JO - Syst Bot ER -