scholarly journals Fossil flowers from the early Palaeocene of Patagonia, Argentina, with affinity to Schizomerieae (Cunoniaceae)

2018 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan A Jud ◽  
Maria A Gandolfo ◽  
Ari Iglesias ◽  
Peter Wilf
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Flowers

Fossil flowers and leaves of the Ebenaceae from the Eocene of southern Australia

1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 1825-1843 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Basinger ◽  
David C. Christophel
Keyword(s):  
Guard Cells ◽  
Epidermal Cells ◽  
Fossil Leaves ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
The Family ◽  
Fossil Flowers ◽  
Subsidiary Cells ◽  
Clay Lenses ◽  
Coal Measures

Numerous flowers and a diverse assemblage of leaves are mummified in clay lenses in the base of the Demons Bluff Formation overlying the Eastern View Coal Measures. Fossil localities occur in the Alcoa of Australia open cut near Anglesea, Victoria, Australia. Flowers are tubular, less than 10 mm long, and about 5 mm wide. Four sepals are connate forming a cup-shaped calyx. Four petals are fused in their basal third and alternate with sepals. Flowers are all unisexual and staminate. Stamens are epipetalous and consistently 16 in number, arranged in 8 radial pairs. Pollen is subprolate, tricolporate, and about 32 μm in diameter. The exine is smooth to slightly scabrate. A rudimentary ovary occurs in some flowers. Sepals usually have a somewhat textureless abaxial cuticle with actinocytic stomata. Some sepals, however, have frill-like cuticular thickenings over some abaxial epidermal cells and some subsidiary cells with pronounced papillae overarching guard cells. One of the more common leaf types found associated with the flowers is characterized by the same peculiar cuticular thickenings and overarching papillae on subsidiary cells that occur on sepals. This cuticular similarity indicates that flowers and leaves represent a single taxon. Leaves are highly variable in size and shape but are consistently entire margined, with pinnate, brochidodromous venation. The suite of features characterizing the flowers is unique to the Ebenaceae. Flowers of many extant species of Diospyros (Ebenaceae) closely resemble the fossil flowers. Fossil leaves, too, are typical of leaves of extant Diospyros. Both flowers and leaves are considered conspecific and have been assigned the name Austrodiospyros cryptostoma gen. et sp. nov. The Anglesea fossils represent one of the earliest well-documented occurrences of the Ebenaceae and are the earliest known remains of Ebenaceae from Australia. They support the hypothesis of a Gondwanan origin for the family with late Tertiary diversification in the Malesian region.

scholarly journals Two early eudicot fossil flowers from the Kamikitaba assemblage (Coniacian, Late Cretaceous) in northeastern Japan

2017 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
pp. 809-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masamichi Takahashi ◽  
Patrick S. Herendeen ◽  
Xianghui Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Northeastern Japan ◽  
Fossil Flowers

scholarly journals Phylogenetic analysis of fossil flowers using an angiosperm‐wide data set: proof‐of‐concept and challenges ahead

2020 ◽  
Vol 107 (10) ◽  
pp. 1433-1448
Author(s):  
Jürg Schönenberger ◽  
Maria Balthazar ◽  
Andrea López Martínez ◽  
Béatrice Albert ◽  
Charlotte Prieu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Fossil Flowers

scholarly journals Diversity in obscurity: fossil flowers and the early history of angiosperms

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1539) ◽  
pp. 369-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Else Marie Friis ◽  
Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen ◽  
Peter R. Crane
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Distinct Pattern ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Early Angiosperm ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fossil Flowers ◽  
Ecological Dominance

In the second half of the nineteenth century, pioneering discoveries of rich assemblages of fossil plants from the Cretaceous resulted in considerable interest in the first appearance of angiosperms in the geological record. Darwin's famous comment, which labelled the ‘rapid development’ of angiosperms an ‘abominable mystery’, dates from this time. Darwin and his contemporaries were puzzled by the relatively late, seemingly sudden and geographically widespread appearance of modern-looking angiosperms in Late Cretaceous floras. Today, the early diversification of angiosperms seems much less ‘rapid’. Angiosperms were clearly present in the Early Cretaceous, 20–30 Myr before they attained the level of ecological dominance reflected in some mid-Cretaceous floras, and angiosperm leaves and pollen show a distinct pattern of steadily increasing diversity and complexity through this interval. Early angiosperm fossil flowers show a similar orderly diversification and also provide detailed insights into the changing reproductive biology and phylogenetic diversity of angiosperms from the Early Cretaceous. In addition, newly discovered fossil flowers indicate considerable, previously unrecognized, cryptic diversity among the earliest angiosperms known from the fossil record. Lineages that today have an herbaceous or shrubby habit were well represented. Monocotyledons, which have previously been difficult to recognize among assemblages of early fossil angiosperms, were also diverse and prominent in many Early Cretaceous ecosystems.

scholarly journals Oldest record of Metrosideros (Myrtaceae): Fossil flowers, fruits, and leaves from Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 754-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myall Tarran ◽  
Peter G. Wilson ◽  
Robert S. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Flowers

scholarly journals Fossil flowers of Lachnociona camptostylus sp. nov., a second record for the genus in mid-Cretaceous Myanmar Amber

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 655-666
Author(s):  
George O. Poinar, Jr. ◽  
Kenton L. Chambers
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Pistillate Flower ◽  
Pb Isotope ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Dating Methods ◽  
Single Block ◽  
Fossil Flowers ◽  
Isotope Dating ◽  
Fossil Genus ◽  
Perfect Flower

Two flowers embedded in a single block of amber from Myanmar are here proposed as a second species of the previously described fossil genus Lachnociona. The mid-Cretaceous age of the fossils was earlier established through paleontological and U-Pb isotope dating methods. Because they lie within millimeters of each other in the amber, the flowers are assumed to have come from the same parent plant. One flower is hermaphrodite while the other is functionally pistillate. They differ by the number of styles—4 in the perfect flower and 5 in the unisexual one—and most notably by the presence, in the perfect flower, of 10 conspicuous nectar glands forming a disc above the whorl of stamens. The pistillate flower has no such glands. In the new species, the arched styles are widely divergent and the ovary is fully inferior, while in the earlier-described Lachnociona terriae, the flower is functionally pistillate, with styles that are erect and connivent or connate. It could not be determined whether the ovary is superior or half-inferior. The best-preserved anther in the perfect flower of L. camptostylus resembles, in its dorsal filament attachment and hooked filament tip, a vestigial anther present in the flower of L. terriae. Pollen of the new species is tri- or tetracolpate. As proposed in the previous paper, the genus may have participated in the early diversification of the rosid clade of eudicots. 

Ulmus leaves and fruits from the Early–Middle Eocene of northwestern North America: systematics and implications for character evolution within Ulmaceae

2005 ◽  
Vol 83 (12) ◽  
pp. 1663-1681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Denk ◽  
Richard M. Dillhoff
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
North America ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Cladistic Analysis ◽  
Character Evolution ◽  
Modern Species ◽  
Perianth Tube ◽  
Fossil Flowers ◽  
Northwestern North America

Leaves and fruits of Ulmus from the Early–Middle Eocene of British Columbia and Washington are assigned to two species. Ulmus okanaganensis sp.nov. is based on leaves attached to flowering and fruiting twigs and isolated leaves and fruits. Leaves display a polymorphism ranging from large leaves with compound teeth with a blunt apex to small ones with simple teeth resembling those of Zelkova. In extant Ulmus, sucker-shoot leaves, elongation-shoot leaves, and leaves on short annual branches often display a very similar polymorphism. In the fossil, flowers are arranged in fascicles having short pedicels. Fascicles are formed in the axils of leaves of current-year shoots and appear together with the leaves. This is uncommon in modern species of Ulmus, where leaves appear either in spring on previous-year shoots or in autumn in the axils of leaves of current-year shoots. Fruits of U. okanaganensis are samaras with extremely reduced or absent wings. Unwinged fruits of modern Ulmus are typically ciliate along the margin of the endocarp and the persistent styles but only a single fruit of U. okanaganensis has been found preserving hairs. The small, shallowly lobed perianth is situated below the endocarp. A second type of foliage is assigned to Ulmus chuchuanus (Berry) LaMotte. This foliage is wider than that of U. okanaganensis and has more densely spaced secondary veins. It also has characteristic compound teeth with primary and subsidiary teeth displaying conspicuously different orientations. Leaves of U. chuchuanus co-occur with a second type of fruit but have not been found in attachment. These fruits are larger than in U. okanaganensis, with a narrow wing, persistent styles, and a large and wide persistent perianth that tapers abruptly into the perianth tube. A cladistic analysis suggests that U. okanaganensis is nested within the subgenus Ulmus, which is a paraphyletic grade basal to the subgenus Oreoptelea. Ulmus chuchuanus foliage shows affinities to the subgenus Ulmus, while the associated fruits display affinities to the subgenus Oreoptelea.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document