conifers

Conifers (division Pinophyta) are woody trees or shrubs with their reproductive structures arranged in compound or simple cones. Conifers play a dominant role in a diversity of terrestrial biomes on six continents, and left a fossil record in Antarctica before going extinct. The modern diversity of conifers is estimated at six families, 70 genera, and 630 species. The fossil record indicates that a great proportion of conifer diversity is made up of extinct forms. In contrast, present species diversity can be attributed to a combination of relicts and recent radiations. The conifer fossil record extends to the Carboniferous (ca. 299-318 million years ago), and modern families appear to have diversified long ago.



Conifers

	Conifers (division Pinophyta) are woody trees or shrubs with their reproductive structures arranged in compound or simple cones. Conifers play a dominant role in a diversity of terrestrial biomes on six continents, and left a fossil record in Antarctica before going extinct. The modern diversity of conifers is estimated at six families, 70 genera, and 630 species. The fossil record indicates that a great proportion of conifer diversity is made up of extinct forms. In contrast, present species diversity can be attributed to a combination of relicts and recent radiations. The conifer fossil record extends to the Carboniferous (ca. 299-318 million years ago), and modern families appear to have diversified long ago.	Modern Families Mexican genera Conifers of Hidalgo Pines

	Evolutionary themes in the group include parallel reduction of the ovulate cones, and differences in patterns of sexual inheritance of cytoplasmic organelles. Modern conifers have been studied more intensively than the majority of plants. Our relatively deeper knowledge of them is due not only to the reduced number of species in the group, but to their dominant role in temperate forests and their importance for humans.

	Important contributions of the phylogenetic method for understanding their systematics and evolution of the conifers have included the demonstration that Taxaceae are conifers and their arils are highly reduced ovulate cones, and the use of monophyly as a criterion for reducing the number of conifer families to six.
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