Early cretaceous fossil evidence for angiosperm evolution

1977 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo J. Hickey ◽  
James A. Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Angiosperm Evolution ◽  
Fossil Evidence

scholarly journals Fossil evidence for low gas exchange capacities for Early Cretaceous angiosperm leaves

Paleobiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor S. Feild ◽  
Garland R. Upchurch ◽  
David S. Chatelet ◽  
Timothy J. Brodribb ◽  
Kunsiri C. Grubbs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Exchange ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Leaf Gas Exchange ◽  
Exchange Capacity ◽  
Basal Angiosperm ◽  
Photosynthetic Gas Exchange ◽  
Angiosperm Evolution ◽  
Early Angiosperm ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Functional Analyses

The photosynthetic gas exchange capacities of early angiosperms remain enigmatic. Nevertheless, many hypotheses about the causes of early angiosperm success and how angiosperms influenced Mesozoic ecosystem function hinge on understanding the maximum capacity for early angiosperm metabolism. We applied structure-functional analyses of leaf veins and stomatal pore geometry to determine the hydraulic and diffusive gas exchange capacities of Early Cretaceous fossil leaves. All of the late Aptian—early Albian angiosperms measured possessed low vein density and low maximal stomatal pore area, indicating low leaf gas exchange capacities in comparison to modern ecologically dominant angiosperms. Gas exchange capacities for Early Cretaceous angiosperms were equivalent or lower than ferns and gymnosperms. Fossil leaf taxa from Aptian to Paleocene sediments previously identified as putative stem-lineages to Austrobaileyales and Chloranthales had the same gas exchange capacities and possibly leaf water relations of their living relatives. Our results provide fossil evidence for the hypothesis that high leaf gas exchange capacity is a derived feature of later angiosperm evolution. In addition, the leaf gas exchange functions of austrobaileyoid and chloranthoid fossils support the hypothesis that comparative research on the biology of living basal angiosperm lineages reveals genuine signals of Early Cretaceous angiosperm ecophysiology.

Fossil evidence of core monocots in the Early Cretaceous

Nature Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 691-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clément Coiffard ◽  
Nikolay Kardjilov ◽  
Ingo Manke ◽  
Mary E. C. Bernardes-de-Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Evidence

Fossil evidence of water lilies (Nymphaeales) in the Early Cretaceous

Nature ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 410 (6826) ◽  
pp. 357-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Else Marie Friis ◽  
Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen ◽  
Peter R. Crane
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Evidence

scholarly journals The early evolution of feathers: fossil evidence from Cretaceous amber of France

2008 ◽  
Vol 275 (1639) ◽  
pp. 1197-1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Perrichot ◽  
Loïc Marion ◽  
Didier Néraudeau ◽  
Romain Vullo ◽  
Paul Tafforeau
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Critical Stage ◽  
Avian Flight ◽  
Early Bird ◽  
Theropod Dinosaurs ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Developmental Theories ◽  
Incremental Evolution ◽  
Fossil Records

The developmental stages of feathers are of major importance in the evolution of body covering and the origin of avian flight. Until now, there were significant gaps in knowledge of early morphologies in theoretical stages of feathers as well as in palaeontological material. Here we report fossil evidence of an intermediate and critical stage in the incremental evolution of feathers which has been predicted by developmental theories but hitherto undocumented by evidence from both the recent and the fossil records. Seven feathers have been found in an Early Cretaceous (Late Albian, ca 100 Myr) amber of western France, which display a flattened shaft composed by the still distinct and incompletely fused bases of the barbs forming two irregular vanes. Considering their remarkably primitive features, and since recent discoveries have yielded feathers of modern type in some derived theropod dinosaurs, the Albian feathers from France might have been derived either from an early bird or from a non-avian dinosaur.

Fossil actinomycete in Eocene-Oligocene Dominican amber

1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 398-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin M. Waggoner
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Plant Roots ◽  
Gram Positive ◽  
Lower Carboniferous ◽  
Bed Sediments ◽  
Dominican Amber ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Actinorhizal Nodules

Actinomycetes are Gram-positive prokaryotes that tend to form branching and fragmenting filaments, which in some groups form a sizable mycelium. They make up a large and important part of modern terrestrial microfloras but are not known extensively as fossils, although they have a long fossil history. Actinomycete-like fossils appear several times in the Precambrian: in the middle Precambrian Gowganda Formation of Ontario (Jackson, 1967), in the 2.0 Ga Gunflint Chert of Ontario (Lanier, 1987), and possibly in a lichen-like symbiosis in the 2.8 Ga Witwatersrand rocks of South Africa (Hallbauer and Van Warmelo, 1974), among others. Direct fossil evidence of actinomycetes is very rare in the Phanerozoic, and some “fossil” actinomycetes may be later contaminants (Knoll, 1977; Smoot and Taylor, 1983). Hyphae identified as actinomycetes are known from rod-like bodies identified as nematodes inside a decaying scorpion from the lower Carboniferous of Scotland (Stoermer, 1964), and from the interior of fern phloem cells from the Pennsylvanian (Smoot and Taylor, 1983). Unmineralized Actinomyces-like cells are known from calcite in bituminous lake-bed sediments from the early Cretaceous of Nevada (Bradley, 1963), and similar, poorly preserved fossils of a form called Actinomycites have been reported from the Jurassic of Scotland (Ellis, 1915). Actinorhizal nodules, formed by actinomycetes symbiotic with plant roots, have been described from the late Pleistocene (Baker and Miller, 1980).

scholarly journals Thai amber: insights into early diatom history?

2020 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Vincent Girard ◽  
Simona Saint Martin ◽  
Eric Buffetaut ◽  
Jean-Paul Saint Martin ◽  
Didier Néraudeau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Early Jurassic ◽  
Coastal Environments ◽  
Potential Bias ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
History Of

The origin of the diatoms still remains enigmatic. Their fossil record is scarce until the Late Cretaceous and great divergences exist between molecular data and the earliest fossil evidence. While molecular data indicate an origin during the Triassic or Early Jurassic, early fossil evidence is only from the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. The discovery of diatoms in French mid-Cretaceous amber by the end of the 2000s already suggested a potential bias in the diatom fossil record as it made older many diatom lineages, the record of which hitherto began at the end of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic/Early Cretaceous fossil record of diatoms is extremely sparse and any new occurrence is important for retracing the evolutionary, palaeogeographical and palaeoenvironmental history of diatoms. Thai amber has yielded a new diatom specimen that has been attributed to the genus Hemiaulus. Fossil assemblages and sedimentological data indicate that Thai amber and its Hemiaulus specimen are Late Jurassic in age. This discovery represents the oldest hitherto known specimen of Hemiaulus and so extends the fossil record of the bipolar diatoms and of the genus Hemiaulus by several dozens of millions of years and brings closer the fossil evidence and molecular data (that estimated an origin of the bipolar diatoms about 150 Ma ago). It reinforces the hypothesis of a pre-Cretaceous fossil diatom records and also supports an origin of the diatoms in shallow coastal environments.

scholarly journals Multiparted, apocarpous flowers from the Early Cretaceous of eastern North America and Portugal

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-296
Author(s):  
Else Marie Friis ◽  
Peter R. Crane ◽  
Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
New Genera ◽  
Angiosperm Evolution ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Fossil Material ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Inadequate Knowledge

Three new genera, Atlantocarpus, Lambertiflora and Mugideiriflora, are described from the Early Cretaceous of North America and Portugal based on floral structures with multicarpellate and apocarpous gynoecia that have been studied using scanning electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy. Lambertiflora and Mugideiriflora have numerous perianth parts in several series, as well as many stamens and many carpels borne on a short conical receptacle. Atlantocarpus has many carpels arranged spirally on an elongated receptacle. Perianth and stamens are not preserved in Atlantocarpus, but scars of two sizes at the base of the receptacle indicate the presence of several series of tepals and stamens. Phylogenetic assessment of the three new genera indicates close relationships with members of extant Austrobaileyales, which is also favoured by the apparently ascidiate carpels of Atlantocarpus. However, the phylogenetic signal is not strong and the fossils also share many features with magnoliid angiosperms. Fully secure resolution of their relationships is hampered by lack of information of critical floral features in the fossil material, the constellation of likely plesiomorphic characters that they exhibit, and inadequate knowledge of character homologies and character evolution among extant taxa. There is also the broader concern about whether phylogenetic patterns can be reliably inferred for the earliest phases of angiosperm evolution based solely on a depauperate assemblage of extant taxa given extensive extinction over the last 100 million years. The new genera add to growing evidence of diverse extinct angiosperms with multiparted flowers during the Early Cretaceous that have a variety of relationships to extant ANA-grade angiosperms and magnoliids.

scholarly journals Fossil evidence of avian crops from the Early Cretaceous of China

2011 ◽  
Vol 108 (38) ◽  
pp. 15904-15907 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Zheng ◽  
L. D. Martin ◽  
Z. Zhou ◽  
D. A. Burnham ◽  
F. Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Evidence

scholarly journals Angiosperms from the Early Cretaceous sediments of India

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 123-136
Author(s):  
Chinnappa Chopparapu ◽  
Rajanikanth Annamraju ◽  
Pauline Sabina Kavali ◽  
ConfiguraçõesSarah Gonçalves Duarte
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Angiosperm Evolution ◽  
First Report ◽  
Fossil Remains ◽  
Phylogenetic Studies ◽  
Fossil Material ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Cretaceous Fossils ◽  
Godavari Basin

This study presents the first report of angiosperm macrofossil assemblage from the Early Cretaceous sediments of India, containing a fruit, a spike, a petal, leaves, and an axis from the Krishna Godavari Basin. This assemblage provides clues to angiosperm evolution and ecology during the Early Cretaceous of India. The described enigmatic forms are comparable to fruits of Trapa, and palm leaves and spikes of Potamogeton. The fossil material also includes ribbon-like leaves with a small axis; fossil remains suggest affinity with the monocotyledon group and support recent morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies to establish the divergence of this group from dicotyledons, during the early Cretaceous. Fossils described in the present study suggest an affinity for an aquatic environment that appears to be ideal for some early angiosperms.

scholarly journals Fossil evidence for a herbaceous diversification of early eudicot angiosperms during the Early Cretaceous

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1814) ◽  
pp. 20151045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan A. Jud
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Pollen Grains ◽  
Land Plant ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Primary Radiation ◽  
Ecological Strategies ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Rapid Diversification ◽  
Fast Evolution

Eudicot flowering plants comprise roughly 70% of land plant species diversity today, but their early evolution is not well understood. Fossil evidence has been largely restricted to their distinctive tricolpate pollen grains and this has limited our understanding of the ecological strategies that characterized their primary radiation. I describe megafossils of an Early Cretaceous eudicot from the Potomac Group in Maryland and Virginia, USA that are complete enough to allow reconstruction of important life-history traits. I draw on quantitative and qualitative analysis of functional traits, phylogenetic analysis and sedimentological evidence to reconstruct the biology of this extinct species. These plants were small and locally rare but widespread, fast-growing herbs. They had complex leaves and they were colonizers of bright, wet, disturbance-prone habitats. Other early eudicot megafossils appear to be herbaceous rather than woody, suggesting that this habit was characteristic of their primary radiation. A mostly herbaceous initial diversification of eudicots could simultaneously explain the heretofore sparse megafossil record as well as their rapid diversification during the Early Cretaceous because the angiosperm capacity for fast reproduction and fast evolution is best expressed in herbs.

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