Early angiosperm fossil flowers show a similar orderly diversification and also provide detailed insights into the changing reproductive biology and phylogenetic diversity of angiosperms from the Early Cretaceous. In addition, newly discovered fossil flowers indicate considerable, previously unrecognized, cryptic diversity among the earliest angiosperms known from the fossil record. Lineages

that today have an herbaceous or shrubby habit selleck chemical were well represented. Monocotyledons, which have previously been difficult to recognize among assemblages of early fossil angiosperms, were also diverse and prominent in many Early Cretaceous ecosystems.”
“Antimony doped p-type ZnO films were grown on Al2O3 (0001) substrate by pulsed laser deposition. The structural properties of Zn1-xSbxO (3% and 5%) thin films were investigated by Raman scattering studies. The softening of local lattice due to the formation of (Sb-Zn-2V(Zn)) acceptor complexes was detected as the shift in 4SC-202 inhibitor E-2(high) mode toward lower frequency side in ZnSbO thin films. Additional optical modes observed at 277, 333, 483, and 534 cm(-1) are due to the breaking of translational symmetry in w-ZnO by Sb doping. The Zn-Sb related local vibrational mode was detected around 237

cm(-1) in 5% Sb doped ZnO thin film. Room temperature Hall measurements exhibited low resistivity of 0.017 Omega cm, high hole concentration of find more 6.25 x 10(18) cm(-3), and mobility of 57.44 cm(2)/V s in the 5% Sb-doped ZnO thin film. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3516493]“
“Flowering plants represent the most significant branch in the tree of land plants, with respect to the number of extant species, their impact on the shaping of modern ecosystems and their economic importance. However,

unlike so many persistent phylogenetic problems that have yielded to insights from DNA sequence data, the mystery surrounding the origin of angiosperms has deepened with the advent and advance of molecular systematics. Strong statistical support for competing hypotheses and recent novel trees from molecular data suggest that the accuracy of current molecular trees requires further testing. Analyses of phytochrome amino acids using a duplicate gene-rooting approach yield trees that unite cycads and angiosperms in a clade that is sister to a clade in which Gingko and Cupressophyta are successive sister taxa to gnetophytes plus Pinaceae. Application of a cycads + angiosperms backbone constraint in analyses of a morphological dataset yields better resolved trees than do analyses in which extant gymnosperms are forced to be monophyletic. The results have implications both for our assessment of uncertainty in trees from sequence data and for our use of molecular constraints as a way to integrate insights from morphological and molecular evidence.