the place and character are important factors of a novel. in fact place is a framework in which the events happen and is divided into two types: open & close. the character is a dynamic element in novel progression; while plays an important role in formation, evolution and presentation of the place related events. the character itself divides into different types which the present paper focuses...

A synthesis of available data on the morphological diversity of polykrikoid dinoflagellates allowed us to formulate a hypothesis of relationships that help explain character evolution within the group. Phylogenetic analyses of new SSU rDNA sequences from Pheopolykrikos beauchampii Chatton, Polykrikos kofoidii Chatton, and Polykrikos lebourae Herdman helped refine this hypothetical framework. Ou...

It may have been PT Barnum or the designer of the Field of Dreams who said that if we build it, they will come. While they have been among the first to vocalize the concept, nature actually preempted them in its application. Whether we examine the fossil record or the depths of the sea, we find that nature accommodates whatever niche is afforded by geologic or climatic processes. Is there an en...

The Euglenida consists mostly of free-living flagellates with very diverse modes of nutrition. A number of heterotrophic euglenids (e.g., Petalomonas and Ploeotia) are limited to bacteriotrophy (Fig. 1a–c) while others (e.g., Dinema and Peranema) are capable of ingesting eukaryotic prey (Fig. 1f). We use the label “eukaryotroph” to distinguish the latter taxa from the bacteriotrophs (Triemer an...

The questions of how to test hypotheses of character evolution, and incorporate character evolution into phylogenetic analysis are considered in this thesis. When a character transformation series is not linear, it is usually decoded into a set of binary characters by various binary coding methods. The disadvantages of such an approach have been discussed extensively in the literature. We propo...