Kathleen M. Pryer, Professor  

Kathleen M. Pryer

Education:
Ph.D., Botany, Duke University, 1995
M.Sc., Botany, University of Guelph, 1981
B.Sc., Biology, McGill University, 1976

Office Location: BioSci: 358
Office Phone: (919) 660-7380
Email Address: pryer@duke.edu
Web Page: http://pryerlab.biology.duke.edu

Specialties:
Evolution
Systematics

Research Categories: Evolutionary biology of early land plants

Research Description: My research focuses on understanding the evolutionary relationships of ancient land plants, especially ferns and horsetails, by integrating evidence from morphology, molecules (DNA sequence data from multiple genes), and the fossil record. I use an explicit phylogenetic framework to examine the morphological evolution of various sporophytic and gametophytic characters within vascular plants, and to gain insight into the evolution of various life history traits and the body plans that typify vascular plants. A phylogenetic perspective also informs my molecular evolutionary studies that attempt to elucidate why we observe remarkable rate heterogeneity in chloroplast genes in land plant phylogeny.

Representative Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

  1. Li, F.-W., K.M. Pryer, and M.D. Windham, Gaga, a new fern genus segregated from Cheilanthes (Pteridaceae), Systematic Botany, vol. 37 (2012), pp. 845-860 .
  2. Beck, J.B., J. Allison, K.M. Pryer, and M.D. Windham, Identifying multiple origins of polyploid taxa: a multilocus study of the hybrid cloak fern (Astrolepis integerrima; Pteridaceae), American Journal of Botany, vol. 99 (2012), pp. 1857-1865 .
  3. Rothfels, C.J., A. Larsson, L.-Y. Kuo, P. Korall, W.-L. Chiou, and K.M. Pryer, Overcoming deep roots, fast rates, and short internodes to resolve the ancient rapid radiation of eupolypods II ferns, Systematic Biology, vol. 61 (2012), pp. 490-509 .
  4. Johnson, A.K., C.J. Rothfels, M.D. Windham, and K.M. Pryer, Unique expression of a sporophytic character on the gametophytes of notholaenid ferns (Pteridaceae), American Journal of Botany, vol. 99 (2012), pp. 1118-1124 .
  5. Schuettpelz, E. and K.M. Pryer, Evidence for a Cenozoic radiation of ferns in an angiosperm-dominated canopy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 106: 11200-11205 (cover). (2009) .
  6. Schuettpelz E. and K.M. Pryer, Fern phylogeny inferred from 400 leptosporangiate species and three plastid genes., Taxon 56: 1037-1050. (2007) .
  7. Schneider, H., E. Schuettpelz, K.M. Pryer, R. Cranfill, S. Magallón, R. Lupia, Ferns diversified in the shadow of angiosperms, Nature, vol. 428 (2004), pp. 553-557 .
  8. Pryer, K.M., H. Schneider, A.R. Smith, R. Cranfill, P.G. Wolf, J.S. Hunt, and S.D. Sipes, Horsetails and ferns are a monophyletic group and the closest living relatives to seed plants, Nature, vol. 409 (2001), pp. 618-622 (cover) .

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