Phylogenetic position and delimitation of the moss family P lagiotheciaceae in the order H ypnales

The phylogenetic position and generic composition of the moss family Plagiotheciaceae were explored using DNA sequence data from three genomes: plastid trnL ‐ F and rps4 , mitochondrial nad5 intron and nuclear ITS1 ‐5.8 S ‐ ITS2 . Our phylogenetic analyses included 35 terminals from Plagiotheciaceae and 71 outgroup taxa from a representative set of hypnalean moss families. The family Plagiotheciaceae is resolved in the early‐diverging Hypnales grade, together with Fontinalaceae, Habrodontaceae and several genera which are mainly distributed in the area of the former G ondwanan supercontinent. However, monophyly of the family can only be attained if the three S outhern H emisphere genera, A crocladium , C atagonium and R hizofabronia , are excluded. Ancestral state reconstruction for eight morphological characters reveals that many characters used to delimit the family, such as a lack of pseudoparaphyllia and rhizoids inserted in the leaf axils, were already present in the ancestor of H ypnales. Dispersal–vicariance analysis suggests that P lagiotheciaceae and Fontinalaceae have their ancestral distributions in the area of the former L aurasian supercontinent. As the analyses also reveal a G ondwanan distribution for the ancestor of H ypnales in general, P lagiotheciaceae and F ontinalaceae represent the first diverging L aurasian lineages in the order. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London