<
https://theconversation.com/baobab-trees-all-come-from-madagascar-new-study-reveals-that-their-seeds-and-seedlings-floated-to-mainland-africa-and-all-the-way-to-australia-231031>
"There are eight species of baobab in the world, and they have a surprising
distribution. Six are found in Madagascar, an island in the Indian Ocean; one
is found on the continent of Africa; and the last is far away in Australia.
The origin of this group of plants has fascinated people for a long time. I
joined a global team of plant genetics and genomics researchers led by Tao Wan
and Qing Feng Wang of the Wuhan Botanical Gardens in China and Ilia Leitch of
the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London to sequence, assemble and study the
genomes of all eight baobab species.
Baobabs are a remarkable keystone species, capable of supporting a wide
diversity of animals for food and shelter. They can reach huge dimensions
(depending on the species) in both height and diameter. The largest species can
tower above the understorey vegetation. When you encounter a big African baobab
on its own, it really is like “Home Tree” in the movie
Avatar, not only
because of its size, but also because it supports such a huge variety of life.
From an in-depth analysis of genomic data, we were able to explore how much
genetic diversity there is in each species. This is important because it can
indicate how resilient each species is to some of the big environmental
challenges baobabs are facing, such as land use problems and climate change,
and hence their risk of extinction.
Our research found that the baobabs we see today all originated in Madagascar.
They started evolving to form the distinct species around 21 million years ago.
Later, two of these species travelled to Africa and Australia before the
lineages went extinct in Madagascar."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
