With respect to my own research, my focus is on establishing a dependable fossil record for the flowering plants that includes reliably identified floral evidence. This approach is unique and informative due to the nature of flowers, the phylogenetic significance of their characters and adaptive significance. Such a record has implications for climate change, molecular evolution, hyper radiations characteristic of the angiosperms and for evaluating ecological-evolutionary hypotheses invoked to explain angiosperm dominance of modern ecosystems. Such research has implications for systematics/systematics methodologies and for the evaluation of molecular clock based timing models.
Publications
View publications on Google Scholar.
Selected journal articles:
- Martinez Millan, M., & Crepet, W. L. (2014). The fossil record of the Solanaceae revisited and revised - the fossil record of Rhamnaceae enhanced. Botanical Review. 80:73-106.
- Crepet, W. L., & Niklas, K. J. (2009). Darwin’s second 'abominable mystery': Why are there so many angiosperm species? American Journal of Botany. 96:366-381.
- Rothwell, G. W., Crepet, W. L., & Stockey, R. A. (2009). Is the anthophyte hypothesis alive and well? New evidence from the reproductive structures of Bennettitales. American Journal of Botany. 96:296-322.
- Crepet, W. L. (2008). The fossil record of angiosperms: requiem or renaissance? Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 95:3-33.
- Gandolfo Nixon, M. A., Nixon, K. C., & Crepet, W. L. (2004). Cretaceous flowers of Nymphaeaceae and implications for complex insect entrapment pollination mechanisms in Early Angiosperms. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 101:8056-8060.
- Crepet, W. L., Nixon, K. C., & Gandolfo Nixon, M. A. (2004). Fossil evidence and phylogeny: the age of major angiosperm clades based on mesofossil and macrofossil evidence from Cretaceous deposits. American Journal of Botany. 91:1666-1682.
Book Chapters
- Crepet, W. L., & Stevenson, D. (2010). The Bennettitales (Cycadeoidales): a Preliminary Perspective on this Arguably Enigmatic Group. p. 214-244 Plants in Mesozic Time: Morphological Innovations, Phylogeny, Ecosystems Carole T. Gee (ed.), Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
Book Sections
- Crepet, W. L. (2013). Origin and Diversification of Angiosperms. p. 613-627 Encyclopedia of Biodiversity Simon A. Levin (ed.), Elsevier, Netherlands.
